CTVNews.ca Staff Published Saturday, October 25, 2014 10:30PM EDT Last Updated Saturday, October 25, 2014 11:46PM EDT

An estimated 16,000 Canadians live with scleroderma, an incurable autoimmune disorder which causes the body to produce too much collagen, resulting in a hardening of the skin and tissue. There is no cure for the scleroderma, but some patients in Canada are now seeking a costly and experimental stem cell therapy in the U.S.

A little over a year ago, Mike Berry of Kingston, Ont., started having trouble breathing. It was the first sign of scleroderma.

Berry, 42, suffers from the systemic version of scleroderma, which attacks his internal organs. His lungs have been scarred by the disorder, with his lung capacity dropping to 41 per cent in just nine months. His disease may ultimately be fatal.

He described to CTV News how scleroderma has impacted his day-to-day life.

"I'm unable to work any longer; it affects me and everything now," he said. "It's hard to walk fast; I can't walk and talk."

Drugs to treat his scleroderma haven't worked, so now Berry is trying to fundraise more than $150,000 for an experimental U.S. stem cell treatment called Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT), in the hopes that it will save his life.

"It would give me as second chance, I guess I just have a lot to fight for," he said.

Pioneered by Dr. Richard Burt at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, patients receiving HSCT are administered stem cells intravenously.

During the treatment, the patient's stem cells are harvested, and then the patient's over-active immune system is destroyed with powerful chemotherapy drugs. Doctors then re-program the patient's immune system with the harvested stem cells, in the hopes that the cells will "reset" the patient's immune system and stop scleroderma.

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Scleroderma patients seek experimental U.S. stem cell therapy

Scientists from Harvard Medical School have discovered a way of turning stem cells into killing machines to fight brain cancer.

In experiments on mice, the stem cells were genetically engineered to produce and secrete toxins which kill brain tumours, without killing normal cells or themselves.

Researchers said the next stage was to test the procedure in humans.

A stem cell expert said this was "the future" of cancer treatment.

The study, published in the journal Stem Cells, was the work of scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

For many years, they had been researching a stem-cell-based therapy for cancer, which would kill only tumour cells and no others.

They used genetic engineering to make stem cells that spewed out cancer-killing toxins, but, crucially, were also able to resist the effects of the poison they were producing.

They also posed no risk to normal, healthy cells.

In animal tests, the stem cells were surrounded in gel and placed at the site of the brain tumour after it had been removed.

Their cancer cells then died as they had no defence against the toxins.

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Cancer-Killing Stem Cells Engineered In Lab

Lyme Disease and Embryonic Stem Cell Therapy Testimonial
Kim gives a testimonial after 3 months of having followed the Stemaid Lyme Disease Protocol.

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Tuffy stem cell therapy patient
Tuffy 2 months after he received Stem Cell Therapy here. He is running around now like nothing happened. I can not believe he was hit by a car and broke his back in 2 places just 2 months ago.

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23-Oct-2014

Contact: Scott LaFee slafee@ucsd.edu 619-543-6163 University of California - San Diego @UCSanDiego

In a push to further speed clinical development of emerging stem cell therapies, Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at UC San Diego Health System was named today one of three new "alpha clinics" by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state's stem cell agency.

The announcement, made at a public meeting in Los Angeles of the CIRM Governing Board, includes an award of $8 million for each of three sites. The other alpha grant recipients are the City of Hope hospital near Los Angeles and University of California, Los Angeles.

"A UC San Diego alpha clinic will provide vital infrastructure for establishing a comprehensive regenerative medicine clinical hub that can support the unusual complexity of first-in-human stem cell-related clinical trials," said Catriona Jamieson, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine, deputy director of the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center, director of the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center stem cell program and the alpha clinic grant's principal investigator.

"The designation is essential in much the same manner that comprehensive cancer center status is an assurance of scientific rigor and clinical quality. It will attract patients, funding agencies and study sponsors to participate in, support and accelerate novel stem cell clinical trials and ancillary studies for a range of arduous diseases."

The alpha clinics are intended to create the long-term, networked infrastructure needed to launch and conduct numerous, extensive clinical trials of stem cell-based drugs and therapies in humans, including some developed by independent California-based investigators and companies. These trials are requisite before any new drug or treatment can be approved for clinical use.

The clinics will also emphasize public education to raise awareness and understanding of stem cell science in part to combat "stem cell tourism" and the marketing of unproven, unregulated and potentially dangerous therapies and help establish sustainable business models for future, approved stem cell treatments.

"Everything we do has one simple goal, to accelerate the development of successful treatments for people in need," said C. Randal Mills, PhD, CIRM president and CEO. "Stem cell therapies are a new way of treating disease; instead of managing symptoms, cellular medicine has the power to replace or regenerate damaged tissues and organs. And so we need to explore new and innovative ways of accelerating clinical research with stem cells. That is what we hope these alpha stem cell clinics will accomplish."

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UC San Diego named stem cell 'alpha clinic'

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Newswise In a first-of-its-kind collaboration, the University of California, Los Angeles, Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research and University of California, Irvine Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center received a five year $8M grant from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the states stem cell agency, to establish a CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinic center of excellence to conduct clinical trials for investigational stem cell therapies and provide critical resources and expertise in clinical research.

The $8M grant was one of three awarded today by CIRM as part of the CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinics (CASC) Network Initiative. The joint UCLA/UCI award under the direction of Dr. John Adams, a member of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center and professor in the department of orthopaedic surgery, will accelerate the implementation of clinical trials and delivery of stem cell therapies by providing world-class, state-of-the-art infrastructure to support clinical research.

CIRM grant reviewers lauded the UCLA/UCI Consortiums impressive and multidimensional team of experienced personnel that will expand access to patients, attracting national and international clinical trials and accelerating future trials in the pipeline.

The initial stem cell trials supported by the UCLA/UCI Alpha Stem Cell Clinic will be two UCLA projects using blood forming stem cells. The first trial will test a stem cell-based gene therapy for patients with bubble baby disease, also called severe combined immune deficiency (SCID), in which babies are born without an immune system. Under the direction of Dr. Donald Kohn, the clinical trial will use the babys own stem cells with an inserted gene modification to correct the defect and promote the creation of an immune system. The second clinical trial, under the direction of Dr. Antoni Ribas, will use patients own genetically modified blood-forming stem cells to engineer and promote an immune response to melanoma and sarcomas.

This CIRM Alpha Stem Cell Clinic grant is an important acknowledgement of our cutting-edge research and will help us to advance the design, testing and delivery of effective and safe stem cell-based therapies, said Dr. Owen Witte, professor and director of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center. The implementation of a standard of excellence in clinical research will improve healthcare and the lives of patients far beyond the longevity of individual trials.

Operating as part of the larger state-wide CIRM supported network, Alpha Stem Cell Clinics provide critical operational support to conduct clinical trials, with focused resources and expertise in stem cell-based clinical research including clinical operations support and patient care coordination personnel.

UCI has established a strong preclinical stem cell research program, and its vital to move ahead to the clinical testing phase, said Sidney Golub, director of UCIs Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center. To advance treatments in this field, we all have to work together, and thats what the UCLA-UCI Alpha Stem Cell Clinic program represents.

About the UCLA Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research

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UCLA and UCI Awarded $8M Grant to Launch Collaborative Stem Cell Clinic "Center of Excellence"

Stem Cell Hair Therapy - Hair Regrowth Treatment using Adult Stem Cell from Luminesce
Do It Yourself - Stem Cell Hair Therapy : http://placesiana.com/stem-cell-hair-loss-therapy Imagine becoming a healthier, much younger, better looking you? Infused with a potent growth factor...

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Stem Cell Hair Therapy - Hair Regrowth Treatment using Adult Stem Cell from Luminesce - Video

Updated June 09, 2014.

Written or reviewed by a board-certified physician. See About.com's Medical Review Board.

More and more, COPD is being recognized as a worldwide epidemic affecting over 200 million people and causing more than 3 million deaths annually. That no therapeutic intervention has been found to slow the progression of COPD speaks loudly for the importance of finding new ways to treat the disease. Stem cell therapy is slowly but surely making headlines in mainstream medicine as being a promising source of treatment for COPD and many other diseases.

Stem cells are cells found in bone marrow and other organs. They can develop into any type of tissue that exists in the fully developed body, including any kind of blood cell: red blood cells, white blood cells, or platelets.

Because of their unique, regenerative properties, stem cells offer new hope for a variety of diseases, including diabetes mellitis, stroke, osteoporosis, heart disease and, more recently, COPD. Scientists are interested in using stem cells to repair damaged cells and tissues in the body because they are far less likely than to be rejected than foreign cells that originated from another source.

There are two types of stem cells that doctors work with most in both humans and animals: Embryonic stem cells are derived from a blastocyst, a type of cell found in mammalian embryos and adults stem cells which are derived from the umbilical cord, placenta or from blood, bone marrow, skin, and other tissues.

Embryonic stem cells have the capacity to develop into every type of tissue found in an adult. Embryonic stem cells used for research develop from eggs that have been fertilized in vitro (in a laboratory). After they are extracted from the embryo, the cells are grown in cell culture, an artificial medium used for medical research. It is atop this medium where they then divide and multiply.

Adult stem cells have been found in many organs and tissues of the body, but, once removed from the body, they have a difficult time dividing, which makes generating large quantities of them quite challenging. Currently, scientists are trying to find better ways to grow adult stem cells in cell culture and to manipulate them into specific types of cells that have the ability to treat injury and disease.

There is much controversy going on in the world of stem cell therapy and COPD. Why? While autologous stem cell treatment without manipulation is legal in the United States, without manipulation, treatments are not likely to be clinically relevant. For stem cell treatments to be clinically relevant, millions of stem cells need to be implanted into a designated recipient. Because generating millions of stem cells is difficult once they are removed from the body, scientists must manipulate them somehow to produce larger quantities. The FDA says that manipulation turns them into prescription drugs, and that this practice must therefore be tightly regulated. Stem cell advocates don't agree with the FDA's stand on this, and are currently fighting to get this changed.

Theoretically speaking, if the regenerative processes in the lungs can keep up with the destructive, inflammatory processes caused by smoking and other airway irritants that ultimately lead to COPD, the lungs would be able to maintain homeostasis, (balance) and lung tissue and function can be preserved.

Continued here:

The Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Therapy for COPD

3 hours ago

The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute, through the launch of its repository in 2015, will provide for the first time the largest-ever number of stem cell lines available to the scientific research community. Initially, over 600 induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines and 1,000 cultured fibroblasts from over 1,000 unique human subjects will be made available, with an increasing number available in the first year. To collect these samples, NYSCF set up a rigorous human subjects system that protects patients and allows for the safe and anonymous collection of samples from people interested in participating in research.

A pilot of over 200 of NYSCF's iPS cell lines is already searchable on an online database. The pilot includes panels of iPS cell lines generated from donors affected by specific diseases such as type 1 diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis, as well as a diversity panel of presumed healthy donors from a wide range of genetic backgrounds representing the United States Census. These panels, curated to provide ideal initial cohorts for studying each area, include subjects ranging in age of disease onset, and are gender matched. Other panels that will be available in 2015 include Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, Juvenile Batten disease, and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

"NYSCF's mission is to develop new treatments for patients. Building the necessary infrastructure and making resources available to scientists around the world to further everyone's research are critical steps in accomplishing this goal," said Susan L. Solomon, CEO of The New York Stem Cell Foundation.

NYSCF has developed the technology needed to create a large collection of stem cell lines representing the world's population. This platform, known as the NYSCF Global Stem Cell ArrayTM, is an automated robotic system for stem cell production and is capable of generating 200 iPS cell lines a month from patients with various diseases and conditions and from all genetic backgrounds. The NYSCF Global Stem Cell ArrayTM is also used for stem cell differentiation and drug screening.

Currently available in the online database that was developed in collaboration with eagle-i Network, of the Harvard Catalyst, is a pilot set of approximately 200 iPS cell lines and related information about the patients. This open source, open access resource discovery platform makes the cell lines and related information available to the public on a user-friendly, web-based, searchable system. This is one example of NYSCF's efforts to reduce duplicative research and enable even broader collaborative research efforts via data sharing and analysis. NYSCF continues to play a key role in connecting the dots between patients, scientists, funders, and outside researchers that all need access to biological samples.

"The NYSCF repository will be a critical complement to other existing efforts which are limited in their ability to distribute on a global scale. I believe that this NYSCF effort wholly supported by philanthropy will help accelerate the use of iPS cell based technology," said Dr. Mahendra Rao, NYSCF Vice President of Regenerative Medicine.

To develop these resources, NYSCF has partnered with over 50 disease foundations, academic institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and government entities, including the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI), PersonalGenomes.org, the Beyond Batten Disease Foundation, among several others. NYSCF also participates in and drives a number of large-scale multi stakeholder initiatives including government and international efforts. One such example is the Cure Alzheimer's Fund Stem Cell Consortium, a group consisting of six institutions, including NYSCF, directly investigating, for the first time, brain cells in petri dishes from individual patients who have the common sporadic form of Alzheimer's disease.

"We are entering this next important phase of using stem cells to understand disease and discover new drugs. Having collaborated with NYSCF extensively over the last five years on the automation of stem cell production and differentiation, it's really an exciting moment to see these new technologies that NYSCF has developed now being made available to the entire academic and commercial research communities," said Dr. Kevin Eggan, Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University and Principal Investigator of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

NYSCF's unique technological resources have resulted in partnerships with companies to develop both stem cell lines and also collaborative research programs. Over the past year, NYSCF has established collaborations with four pharmaceutical companies to accelerate the translation of basic scientific discoveries into the clinic. Federal and state governments are also working with NYSCF to further stem cell research in the pursuit of cures. In 2013, NYSCF partnered with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Undiagnosed Disease Program (UDP) to generate stem cell lines from 100 patients in the UDP and also collaborate with UDP researchers to better understand and potentially treat select rare diseases.

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NYSCF Research Institute announces largest-ever stem cell repository

By C. Rajan, contributing writer

The University of Pennsylvania has announced promising results of its novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy for cancer.

In the study involving 25 children and five adults with end-stage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), there was an impressive 90 percent response rate with complete remission.

Twenty-seven of the 30 patients went into complete remission after receiving the investigational therapy (called CTL019), and 78 percent of the patients were alive six months after treatment. The longest remission among the patients has lasted almost three years.

The patients who participated in these trials had relapsed as many as four times, including 60 percent whose cancers came back even after stem cell transplants. Their cancers were so aggressive they had no treatment options left, said the studys senior author, Stephan Grupp, MD, PhD, at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The durable responses we have observed with CTL019 therapy are unprecedented.

The ongoing study is being conducted by researchers at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). The CAR trial program enrolling children with leukemia is also expanding to nine other pediatric centers.

The experimental CAR therapy received FDAs breakthrough designation in July for the treatment of relapsed and refractory adult and pediatric ALL. The novel treatment was pioneered by Penn researchers and then supported by Novartis. Penn entered an exclusive global research and licensing agreement with Novartis in 2012 to develop and commercialize personalized CAR T-cell therapies for cancers.

"This represents a really powerful therapy for ALL," Penn oncologist David Porter says. "We've treated enough patients to confirm that. It's time to start multi-center trials."

A CAR is a genetically engineered marker protein that is grafted onto T cells, which are part of the immune system. The CAR activates the T cell to attack tumor cells that express specific markers; in this case, the target is a protein called CD19.

The treatment procedure involves removing patients' T cells via an apheresis process and then genetically reprogramming them to hunt tumor cells. When injected back into patients bodies, these new hunter cells multiply and attack tumor cells expressing CD19. The hunter cells can grow, creating 10,000+ new cells in the body for each single engineered cell injected into the patients.

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University Of Pennsylvania's T-Cell Therapy Shows Promising Results

I have to admit that my first response to these reports out of Britain that stem cells had been successfully used to repair a complete spinal cord transection was skepticism incredulity even. Theyre reporting that a man with a completely severed spinal cord at level T10-T11 is able to walk again! The Guardian gushes! The Daily Mail gets in the act (always a bad sign)! When I read that the patient had an 8mm gap in his spinal cord that had been filling up with scar tissue for the last two years, I was even more doubtful: under the best of conditions, it was unlikely that youd get substantial connectivity across that distance.

So I read the paper. Im less skeptical now, for a couple of reasons. They actually did this experiment on 3 people, and all showed degrees of improvement, although the newspapers are all focusing on just the one who had the greatest change. The gradual changes are all documented thoroughly and believably. And, sad to say, the improvements in the mans motor and sensory ability are more limited and more realistic than most of the accounts would have you think.

The story is actually in accord with what weve seen in stem cell repair of spinal cord injury in rats and mice.

Overall, they found that stem cell treatment results in an average improvement of about 25% over the post-injury performance in both sensory and motor outcomes, though the results can vary widely between animals. For sensory outcomes the degree of improvement tended to increase with the number of cells introduced scientists are often reassured by this sort of dose response, as it suggests a real underlying biologically plausible effect. So the good news is that stem cell therapy does indeed seem to confer a statistically significant improvement over the residual ability of the animals both to move and feel things beyond the spinal injury site.

Significant but far from complete improvement is exactly what wed expect, and that improvement is a very, very good thing. It is an accomplishment to translate animal studies into getting measurable clinical improvements in people.

The basic procedure is straightforward. There is a population of neural cells in humans that do actively and continuously regenerate: the cells of the olfactory bulb. So what they did is remove one of the patients own olfactory bulbs, dissociate it into a soup of isolated cells, and inject them into locations above and below the injury. They also bridged the gap with strips of nerve tissue harvested from the patients leg. The idea is that the proliferating cells and the nerves would provide a nerve growth-friendly environment and build substrate bridges that would stimulate the damaged cells and provide a path for regrowth.

Big bonus: this was an autologous transplant (from the patients own tissues), so there was no worry about immune system rejection. There were legitimate worries about inflammation, doing further damage to the spinal cord, and provoking greater degeneration, and part of the purpose of this work was to assess the safety of the procedure. There were no complications.

Also, Im sure you were worried about this, but the lost olfactory cells also regenerated and the patients completely recovered their sense of smell.

Now heres the clinical assessment. Three patients were operated on; T1 is the one who has made all the news with the most remarkable improvement. There were also three control patients who showed no improvement over the same period.

Neurological function improved in all three transplant recipients (T1, T2, T3) during the first year postsurgery. This included a decrease of muscle spasticity (T1, T2) as well as improvement of sensory (T1, T2, T3) and motor function (T1, T2, T3) below the level of spinal cord injury.

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Stem cell treatment of spinal cord injuries [Pharyngula]

La Jolla, CA (PRWEB) October 21, 2014

StemGenex, the leading resource for adult adipose stem cell therapy in the US aimed at improving the lives of patients dealing with degenerative diseases today announced their newest clinical study in partnership with Stem Cell Research Centre for Osteoarthritis. StemGenex and Stem Cell Research Centre (SCRC) believe that a commitment to the safety and efficacy of stem cell therapy are paramount when providing care to patients with life threatening diseases.

There are currently 21 million people in the U.S. alone, who suffer from Osteoarthritis. The most common symptoms are joint pain and stiffness which most commonly affect the neck, lower back, knees, shoulders and hips. These symptoms gradually worsen over time ultimately leading to the need for a total joint replacement procedure. StemGenex believe their new clinical study may provide patients improved mobility, significantly reduced pain and ultimately a better quality of life without needing joint replacement surgery.

This clinical study makes stem cell therapy for osteoarthritis accessible to the millions of individuals currently struggling with this painful disease. The protocol used in these stem cell treatments is unique to StemGenex and SCRC, having the possibility of being more effective than other stem cell treatments currently available. These treatments will utilize a multiple administration method which also includes injections precisely targeting the joint space. StemGenex believes these treatments may be able to keep patients from needing joint replacement surgery in the future, due to regeneration of cartilage in the joint.

This clinical study will be conducted under the leadership of the principal investigator,Dr. Jeremiah McDole, Ph.D. Dr. McDole states, We are excited to begin enrolling for this new study. We have high expectations for what we will learn and what advancements can ultimately be implemented. Of course, our focus is always set toward the near future and what can be done to help improve the lives of those individuals with Osteoarthritis.

This study is registered through The National Institutes of Health which can be found at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov and is being conducted under IRB approval of Stem Cell Research Centre (SCRC). There are many patients who are exploring stem cell therapy for osteoarthritis and it is important they have access to top-tier stem cell therapy. By providing patients access to stem cell studies registered through The National Institutes of Health, patients now have the ability to choose treatment that focuses on both safety and efficacy.

Rita Alexander, founder and president of StemGenex stated With so many people suffering from Osteoarthritis its absolutely wonderful to provide a treatment that has not only shown efficacy but also to be minimally invasive. Over the last several years we have observed significant improvement in the symptoms of Osteoarthritis patients through stem cell treatment. Through these registered clinical studies, we will now be able to publish our findings over the next few years.

This clinical study follows on the heels of StemGenex latest clinical studies for both Parkinsons disease and Multiple Sclerosis. Stem cell treatment studies are currently being offered by StemGenex partnering with Stem Cell Research Centre (SCRC) to patients diagnosed with Osteoarthritis as well as degenerative neurological diseases. StemGenex takes a unique approach of compassion and empowerment while providing access to the latest stem cell therapies for degenerative conditions including Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimers disease, stroke recovery and others.

To find out more about stem cell therapy, contact StemGenex either by phone at (800) 609-7795 or email Contact@stemgenex.com

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StemGenex New Clinical Study Aims to Provide Relief to Osteoarthritis Patients through Latest Stem Cell Therapy

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Newswise A 26-year-old woman paralyzed after a motor vehicle accident a year ago has successfully undergone a first-in-human experimental procedure to test whether neural stem cells injected at the site of a spinal cord injury is safe and could be an effective treatment.

The procedure, conducted on Sept. 30 under the auspices of the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at UC San Diego Health System and in collaboration with Neuralstem, Inc., a Maryland-based biotechnology firm, is the first of four in the Phase I clinical trial. Post safety testing, its hoped that the transplanted neural stem cells will develop into new neurons that bridge the gap created by the injury, replace severed or lost nerve connections and restore at least some motor and sensory function.

The patient, whose identity remains confidential for privacy reasons, has been discharged and is recovering without complication or adverse effects at home, said Joseph Ciacci, MD, principal investigator and neurosurgeon at UC San Diego Health System.

The spinal cord injury trial is one of three recent ground-breaking stem cell efforts at UC San Diego, supported by the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center, to make the significant leap from laboratory to first-in-human clinical trials.

Last month, researchers at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center and the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center launched a novel Phase I trial to assess the safety of a monoclonal antibody treatment that targets cancer stem cells in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the most common form of blood cancer.

And later this month, the first patient is scheduled to receive an unprecedented stem cell-based therapy designed to treat type 1diabetes in another Phase I clinical trial at UC San Diego.

What we are seeing after years of work is the rubber hitting the road, said Lawrence Goldstein, PhD, director of the UC San Diego Stem Cell program and Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at UC San Diego Health System. These are three very ambitious and innovative trials. Each followed a different development path; each addresses a very different disease or condition. It speaks to the maturation of stem cell science that weve gotten to the point of testing these very real medical applications in people.

To be sure, Goldstein said, the number of patients involved in these first trials is small. The initial focus is upon treatment with low doses to assess safety, but also with hope of patient benefit. As these trials progress and additional trials are launched Goldstein predicts greater numbers of patients will be enrolled at UC San Diego and the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center and elsewhere.

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Promise Put to the Test

Tigard, OR (PRWEB) October 20, 2014

Local veterinary surgeon, Dr. Tim McCarthy is seeking candidates to participate in an investigational study of donor stem cells for dogs with osteoarthritis. Dr. McCarthy has lectured nationally in stem cell therapy and has performed clinical stem cell therapy for 7 years. The ultimate goal of this study is to determine if a single injection of donor stem cells into one or two arthritically affected joints can help reduce pain and inflammation in the treated joints.

Candidates for the current investigational study must be older than nine months, weigh more than five and a half pounds, have osteoarthritis of only one or two leg joints, have had pain or lameness for at least three months, and must not have cancer. Joints that will be included in the study and injected under anesthesia include hips, stifles, shoulders, and elbows. Dogs that may be considered must be in good health and undergo a diagnostic work up before qualifying for the study.

Dr. McCarthy and his team coordinate directly with your veterinarian to provide the most advanced veterinary care available. Cascade Veterinary Referral Center is a locally owned, state-of-the-art veterinary hospital staffed by a highly-skilled team of veterinarians, technicians and client care coordinators. They are committed to providing high-quality care for you and your pet. In 2007 Dr. McCarthy was credentialed with Vet-Stem, Inc. in the use of Regenerative Veterinary Medicine for arthritis and ligament and tendon injuries. For information about the study, please contact Angie Dutcher at (503) 684-1800

About Vet-Stem, Inc. Since its formation in 2002, Vet-Stem, Inc. has endeavored to improve the lives of animals through regenerative medicine. As the first company in the United States to provide an adipose-derived stem cell service to veterinarians for their patients, Vet-Stem pioneered the use of regenerative stem cells for horses, dogs, and cats. In 2004 the first horse was treated with Vet-Stem Regenerative Cell Therapy. Ten years later Vet-Stem celebrated its 10,000th animal treated. As animal advocates, veterinarians, veterinary technicians, and cell biologists, the team at Vet-Stem tasks themselves with the responsibility of discovering, refining, and bringing to market innovative medical therapies that utilize the bodys own healing and regenerative cells.

Contact: Sue Harman Senior Manager, Clinical Trials Vet-Stem, Inc. 12860 Danielson Court, Suite B Poway, CA 92064 858-748-2004 sharman(at)vet-stem(dot)com

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Cascade Veterinary Referral Center Seeks Candidates for an Investigational Study of Stem Cells for Dogs with Arthritis

FranchiseStemcell Fat Stem Cell Therapy Anti Aging
Fat Stem Cell Therapy Anti Aging .

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FranchiseStemcell Fat Stem Cell Therapy Anti Aging - Video

Dr Charles Krome Stem Cell Therapy
This video is about Dr Charles Krome Stem Cell Therapy.

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Dr Charles Krome Stem Cell Therapy - Video

Dunmore, Pennsylvania (PRWEB) October 17, 2014

VCA Dunmore Animal Hospital is proud to announce the addition of Shannon Layne, DVM and her interest in stem cell therapy to their team. Credentialed in Regenerative Cell Therapy with Vet-Stem since January of 2011, Dr. Layne has proudly been treating pets with osteoarthritis and ligament injuries in north-east Pennsylvania with stem cell therapy for the last four years.

Dr. Layne graduated from North Carolina State University, College of Veterinary Medicine in 2010 and has taken a special interest in Regenerative Veterinary Medicine and stem cell therapy since. In contrast to widely used drug therapies for pain management, cell-based therapies (like stem cell therapy) can promote healing, reduce inflammation, and decrease pain. Dr Layne also offers traditional Chinese veterinary medicine including acupuncture and Chinese herbs if clients are interested in a more holistic approach.

Stem cells are regenerative cells that can differentiate into many tissue types (reducing pain and inflammation) thus helping to restore range of motion and regenerate tendon, ligament and joint tissues (Vet-Stem.com/science). In a study using Vet-Stem Regenerative Cell Therapy on dogs with osteoarthritis of the hip joint it was found that regenerative cell therapy (adipose-derived stem cells) decreases patient discomfort and increases patient functional ability.

Once Dr. Layne has identified a patient as a good candidate for stem cell therapy the procedure begins with a fatty tissue collection from the patient. The tissue sample is sent overnight to Vet-Stems lab in California for processing. Once processed the stem cells are extracted and fresh, injectable doses of the patients stem cells are sent overnight, back to Dr. Layne at VCA Dunmore Animal Hospital. Within 48hrs of collecting a fat sample from a patient Dr. Layne is able to inject stem cells into (arthritic or injured) affected areas and regeneration and healing can begin.

At VCA Dunmore Animal Hospital Dr. Layne will be practicing in an 8,800 square foot, state of the art facility that includes two extensive surgery suites. For more information on VCA Dunmore Animal Hospital please visit their website at http://www.vcahospitals.com/dunmore.

About Vet-Stem, Inc.

Since its formation in 2002, Vet-Stem, Inc. has endeavored to improve the lives of animals through regenerative medicine. As the first company in the United States to provide an adipose-derived stem cell service to veterinarians for their patients, Vet-Stem pioneered the use of regenerative stem cells for horses, dogs, cats, and some exotics. In 2004 the first horse was treated with Vet-Stem Regenerative Cell Therapy for a tendon injury that would normally have been career ending. Ten years later Vet-Stem celebrated its 10,000th animal treated, and the success of establishing stem cell therapy as a regenerative medicine for certain inflammatory, degenerative, and arthritic diseases. As animal advocates, veterinarians, veterinary technicians, and cell biologists, the team at Vet-Stem tasks themselves with the responsibility of discovering, refining, and bringing to market innovative medical therapies that utilize the bodys own healing and regenerative cells.

For more information about Vet-Stem and Regenerative Veterinary Medicine visit http://www.vet-stem.com or call 858-748-2004.

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Shannon Layne, DVM and VCA Dunmore Animal Hospital Now Offer Stem Cell Therapy to Pet Patients in Pain

Isabella Beukes, of Santa Rosa, Calif., has been legally blind for more than 40 years. An experimental treatment derived from embryonic stem cells seems to have enabled her now to see not just color but also some shapes. Tim Hussin for NPR hide caption

Isabella Beukes, of Santa Rosa, Calif., has been legally blind for more than 40 years. An experimental treatment derived from embryonic stem cells seems to have enabled her now to see not just color but also some shapes.

Scientists are reporting the first strong evidence that human embryonic stem cells may be helping patients.

The cells appear to have improved the vision in more than half of the 18 patients who had become legally blind because of two progressive, currently incurable eye diseases.

The researchers stress that the findings must be considered preliminary because the number of patients treated was relatively small and they have only been followed for an average of less than two years.

But the findings are quite promising. The patients had lost so much vision that there was no expectation that they could benefit, the researchers say.

"I'm astonished that this is working in the way that it is or seems to be working," says Steven Schwartz, a UCLA eye specialist who led the study, which was published Tuesday in the British medical journal The Lancet. "I'm very excited about it."

Other researchers agreed the work is preliminary, but also highly promising.

"It really does show for the very first time that patients can, in fact, benefit from the therapy," says Dr. Anthony Atala, a surgeon and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University.

What we did is put them into patients who have a disease where those particular cells are dying; and we replaced those dying tissues with new tissue that's derived from these stem cells. In a way it's a retinal transplant.

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TUESDAY, Oct. 14, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- A new study is the first to show the long-term safety of embryonic stem cell transplants to treat human disease.

The research involved 18 people who received the transplants to treat forms of macular degeneration, a leading cause of vision loss.

The transplants, which restored some sight in more than half of the patients, appeared safe up to three years after the procedure.

The study, funded by a U.S.-based company called Advanced Cell Technology, was published Oct. 14 in The Lancet.

"Embryonic stem cells have the potential to become any cell type in the body, but transplantation has been complicated by problems," lead author Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at Advanced Cell Technology, said in a journal news release. Those problems include the rejection of the transplanted cells by the patient's immune system, as well as the danger that the cells might spur certain types of cancers called teratomas.

A teratoma is a type of cancer that occurs when stem cells develop into multiple types of cells and form incompatible tissues that can include teeth and hair.

As Lanza explained, because of these issues, scientists interested in embryonic stem cell therapy have tended to focused on sites in the body that typically do not produce a strong immune response. The eye is one such spot.

In the new study, human embryonic stem cells were first prompted to develop into eye cells called retinal pigment epithelial cells. They were then transplanted into nine people with Stargardt's macular dystrophy, and another nine with dry atrophic age-related macular degeneration.

Patient outcomes were tracked for up to three years after transplant. No signs of either cancer-like cell growth (hyperproliferation) or immune system rejection were found in any of the treated eyes after a median follow-up of 22 months, and the only adverse events were linked not to the transplanted cells, but to the eye surgery or immune system suppression needed for the transplant.

Overall, 10 of the 18 patients said they had significant improvements in their vision, and this improvement was only seen in the eyes that had received the stem cell treatment.

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Embryonic Stem Cell Therapy Shows Long-Term Effectiveness, Safety