Category Archives: Stem Cell Therapy

This is a human ES cell-derived optic cup generated in our self-organization culture (culture day 26). Bright green, neural retina; off green, pigment epithelium; blue, nuclei; red, active myosin (strong in the inner surface of pigment epithelium). Credit: Nakano et al. Cell Stem Cell Volume 10 Issue 6

Human-derived stem cells can spontaneously form the tissue that develops into the part of the eye that allows us to see, according to a study published by Cell Press in the 5th anniversary issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell. Transplantation of this 3D tissue in the future could help patients with visual impairments see clearly.

"This is an important milestone for a new generation of regenerative medicine," says senior study author Yoshiki Sasai of the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology. "Our approach opens a new avenue to the use of human stem cell-derived complex tissues for therapy, as well as for other medical studies related to pathogenesis and drug discovery."

During development, light-sensitive tissue lining the back of the eye, called the retina, forms from a structure known as the optic cup. In the new study, this structure spontaneously emerged from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs)cells derived from human embryos that are capable of developing into a variety of tissuesthanks to the cell culture methods optimized by Sasai and his team.

The hESC-derived cells formed the correct 3D shape and the two layers of the optic cup, including a layer containing a large number of light-responsive cells called photoreceptors. Because retinal degeneration primarily results from damage to these cells, the hESC-derived tissue could be ideal transplantation material.

Beyond the clinical implications, the study will likely accelerate the acquisition of knowledge in the field of developmental biology. For instance, the hESC-derived optic cup is much larger than the optic cup that Sasai and collaborators previously derived from mouse embryonic stem cells, suggesting that these cells contain innate species-specific instructions for building this eye structure. "This study opens the door to understanding human-specific aspects of eye development that researchers were not able to investigate before," Sasai says.

The anniversary issue containing Sasai's study will be given to each delegate attending the 2012 ISSCR meeting in Yokohama, Japan. To highlight the ISSCR meeting and showcase the strong advances made by Japanese scientists in the stem cell field, the issue will also feature two other papers from Japanese authors, including the research groups of Akira Onishi and Jun Yamashita. In addition, the issue contains a series of reviews and perspectives from worldwide leaders in stem cell research.

More information: Nakano et al.: "Self-Formation of Optic Cups and Storable Stratified Neural Retina from Human ESCs." DOI 10.1016/j.stem.2012.05.009

Journal reference: Cell Stem Cell

Provided by Cell Press

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Scientists see new hope for restoring vision with stem cell help

MANILA, Philippines -- "The Buzz" host Boy Abunda is going to Europe this weekend with her mother, who's suffering from dementia and Alzeimers disease.

In an interview with ABS-CBN News on Tuesday afternoon, Abunda said he will bring her mother to Germany to try stem cell therapy.

"Ako ay pupunta sa Europe hindi para magbakasyon. Dadalhin ko po ang aking ina para magpagamot sa Germany. Ito po 'yung fresh stem cell therapy. Maganda 'yung dini-diretso na dahil napag-uusapan ito," Abunda said.

While Abunda is in Germany, Kris Aquino will take his place in co-hosting "The Buzz."

In the interview, Abunda also said he's proud of Aquino, who's now open to doing extreme adventures, while continuing to be a good mother to her two sons.

"Ang daming nagbago kay Kris. May mga bagay na hindi ko inakala na gagawin ni Kris like 'yung diving, zipline at marami pang iba. Natutuwa ako that she has become more open to many things. She has become more adventurous. She has retained being the doting mother that she is pero mas malalim ang halakhak niya ngayon sa buhay. She's just so joyful. Natutuwa ako habang pinapanood ko ang kanyang adventure sa 'KrisTV,'" Abunda said.

Abunda shared that he's also hoping to do a new project with Aquino.

"I'm hoping na someday ay muli kaming magtagpo sa isang palabas dahil marami ang humihiling na kami ay magsama sa isang palabas. Sigurado ako sa puso ko na kami ay gagawa at gagawa dahil magkadugtong ang aming pusod," he said.

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Abunda to try stem cell therapy for mom

CARLSBAD, Calif., June 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Life Technologies Corporation (LIFE) today announced a partnership with Cellular Dynamics International (CDI), the world's largest producer of human cells derived from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, to commercialize a set of three new products optimized to consistently develop and grow human iPS cells for both research and bioproduction.

The partnership marries CDI's leadership in human iPS cell development with Life Technologies' expertise in stem cell research tool manufacturing and global distribution network to make these novel technologies accessible to researchers around the world. Life Technologies' commercialization of Essential 8 Medium, Vitronectin (VTN-N), and Episomal iPSC Reprogramming Vectors addresses several challenges associated with developing relevant cells for use in a wide range of studies, from basic and translational research to drug discovery efforts. The effectiveness of these products is the focus of recent validation studies published in the journals Nature Methods and PLoS One.

"The launch of these new stem cell culture products furthers CDI founder and stem cell pioneer Jamie Thomson's vision to enable scientists worldwide to easily access the power of iPSC technology, thus driving breakthroughs in human health," noted Bob Palay, CDI Chief Executive Officer.

To eliminate the variability introduced by a mouse cell feeder layer previously used during the culture of human iPS cells, researchers have adopted "feeder-free" media. However, existing feeder-free culture media contain more than 20 interactive ingredients, many of which, such as bovine serum albumin (BSA) and lipids, are highly uncharacterized and vary significantly from lot-to-lot.This leads to variability in iPS cell growth and differentiation and impedes the progress of disease studies and potential clinical applications.

Essential 8 Medium, manufactured in a Life Technologies current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) facility, overcomes this barrier. In addition, BSA and other undesirable components have been removed from the media, thus reducing the number of ingredients to just eight well-characterized elements required to support efficient growth, eliminate variability, and enable large-scale production of human iPS cells.

"Essential 8 has far fewer variables, it's more straight-forward and a lot more reproducible," said Emile Nuwaysir, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Cellular Dynamics International. "If the goal is to make a billion cardiomyocytes a day, every day, you want to make sure they're all the same. That's virtually impossible using mouse embryonic fibroblasts and it's very difficult using the more complex, feeder-free media that were available before Essential 8."

Optimized for use with Essential 8 Medium, Vitronectin (VTN-N) is a defined, human protein-based substrate that further eliminates variability during iPS cell culture unlike most existing feeder-free media that requires the use of an undefined matrix derived from mouse tumor cells for cell attachment and growth. The combination of Essential 8 Medium and Vitronectin (VTN-N) provides a defined, culture system free of non-human components for robust, cost-effective and scalable iPS cell culture.

Life Technologies is also introducing the Episomal iPSC Reprogramming Vectors, which leverages non-viral, non-integrating technology to deliver six genes to initiate the reprogramming of human somatic cells, such as blood and skin cells, to iPS cells. A non-viral approach offers a key advantage: human-derived iPS cells have more relevance for patient-specific, disease research. Traditional viral-based methods, such as lentivirus or retrovirus, require integration into the host genome for replication and can disrupt the genome of the reprogrammed cells.

"The ability to reproducibly establish andculture iPS cells using defined reagent systems is key for the advancement of stem cell research, disease modeling and drug discovery," said Chris Armstrong Ph.D, General Manager and Vice President of Primary and Stem Cell Systems at Life Technologies. "The commercialization of these exciting new products serves that purpose and underscores our commitment to provide the most innovative and relevant workflow tools to our customers."

All three products were developed at the University of Wisconsin by Dr. James Thomson, whose lab pioneered embryonic stem cell research and much of the technology surrounding stem cell culturing conditions, in vitro differentiation and iPS cell generation.

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Life Technologies and Cellular Dynamics International Partner for Global Commercialization of Novel Stem Cell ...

Public release date: 12-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jia Liu liujia@genomics.cn BGI Shenzhen

Chalfont St. Giles, UK, and Shenzhen, China 12 June, 2012 GE Healthcare, the healthcare business of GE (NYSE: GE), and BGI, the world's largest genomics organization, jointly announced today a pioneering multi-year research collaboration in stem cell science. The objective of the collaboration is to help advance the potential global utility of stem cell-derived assays for use in drug discovery and toxicity testing by exploring the underlying genetic variation between ethnically diverse human stem cell lines. The collaboration was announced at a signing ceremony attended by Dr Amr Abid, General Manager Cell Technologies, GE Healthcare Life Sciences and Lin Fang, Vice President of BGI, Ye Yin, Deputy President of BGI, and Yutao Du, Deputy President of BGI.

The collaborating parties are initially undertaking two ground-breaking projects. Firstly, BGI is performing genome sequencing and epigenetic analysis on cardiomyocytes and hepatocytes supplied by GE Healthcare Life Sciences. The aim is to map out the genetic variation across an ethnically diverse range of stem cell lines and to examine the changes that occur during differentiation into specific cell types in order to increase the understanding of cell models used in drug development research. Secondly, GE Healthcare is providing BGI with an IN Cell Analyzer 2000 system, a research tool for high content cellular imaging analysis. Training on the IN Cell Analyzer will be provided to BGI, enabling it to investigate gene function for a library of previously sequenced cell types by overexpressing or blocking the activity of single genes and observing the effect in selected populations of cells.

Dr Amr Abid, General Manager Cell Technologies, GE Healthcare Life Sciences, said, "As the pharmaceutical industry seeks to reduce the cost of drug development and to bring more effective, safer drugs to market, the availability of more biologically relevant and predictive cell models is becoming increasingly important. Our long term vision is to help this process by developing a broad range of Cytiva stem-cell derived assays, to include cell types from a wide diversity of ethnic backgrounds. This is a big challenge and we are delighted to be working with such a prestigious institute as the BGI, with its significant resources and world-class capabilities in genomics and epigenomics. By working together, we will advance our understanding of different stem cell lines, which in turn may in the future help in the global drive to develop new, safer and more effective medicines."

Yutao Du, Deputy President of BGI, said, "The importance of high-throughput sequencing has been increasing rapidly in the areas of healthcare, agriculture, environment, and others. Genetic variation analysis of functional cells derived from embryonic stem cells may provide a promising cell model resource for drug development and cell therapy. We are grateful for this opportunity to join hands with an outstanding healthcare organization to push the boundaries of understanding in the field of stem cells. "

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About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems. Our "healthymagination" vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employees are committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at http://www.gehealthcare.com.

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BGI, GE Healthcare team up on pioneering stem cell science projects

A few years ago, concerns over these heart trials were voiced by a Norwegian professor, Harald Arnesen. He concluded in 2007 that they are not convincing and that one German team had achieved striking results only because the control group in its trial had done particularly badly. Prof Arnesen called for a moratorium on this kind of stem-cell therapy.

That still did not deter the clinicians. This January, another trial funded by the EU was announced the largest of all, with 3,000 heart-attack patients recruited from across Europe.

The idea behind the trials is straightforward. During a heart attack, a clogged blood vessel starves heart muscle of oxygen. Up to a billion heart muscle cells, called cardiomyocytes, can be damaged, and the body responds by replacing them with relatively inflexible scar tissue, which can lead to fatal heart failure. So why not implant stem cells that can grow into cardiomyocytes?

Stem cells, of course, come in many kinds: the embryonic variety have the potential to turn into all 200 cell types in the body. Adult stem cells, harvested from the patient, have a more limited repertoire: bone marrow stem cells generate blood cells, for example. So to claim, as was done in 2001, these bone marrow stem cells could turn into heart muscle was both surprising and exciting.

Analysis shows that, at best, the amount of blood pumped during a contraction of one heart chamber rose by 5 per cent after treatment. In a patient where heart efficiency has fallen to 30 per cent of normal, that could be significant but it is relatively meagre, none the less. And it turns out that this level of improvement results whatever the cells injected into the damaged muscle even if they have no prospect of forming cardiomyoctes.

Even the believers in the technique now agree that implanted cells exert a paracrine action, triggering a helpful inflammatory response or secreting chemicals that boost blood vessel formation. But were still waiting for convincing evidence that a patients lost heart muscle cells can be replaced.

Embryonic stem cells offer one route to that goal, though it is difficult to turn them into the right cell type reliably, and there are other risks, such as uncontrolled growths. Another option has come from work by Prof Richard Lee at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, who has found that some adult stem cells can recruit other stem cells already in the heart to become cardiomyocytes.

Meanwhile, other fields of medicine that have seen more systematic research on stem cells are making real progress in using them for example, to treat Parkinsons, diabetes and macular degeneration. The lesson here is that, ultimately, it takes careful experiments, not belief, to make that huge leap from the laboratory to the hospital.

Roger Highfield is director of external affairs at the Science Museum Group

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Heart disease and stem-cell treatments: caught in a clinical stampede

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/pqrlwc/analysis_of_the_st) has announced the addition of Frost & Sullivan's new report "Analysis of the Stem Cell Markets-Unlocking the New Era in Therapeutics" to their offering.

This Frost & Sullivan research service titled Analysis of the Stem Cell Markets-Unlocking the New Era in Therapeutics focuses on prospects for the stem cell therapeutics market in Europe and provides valuable recommendations and conclusions for market participants. Market segmentation is based on regulatory framework in Europe relating to research on adult and embryonic stem cells. The main countries discussed are the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, Finland, and the remaining parts of Europe.

Market Overview

New Applications in Drug Discovery Platforms to Drive Stem Cells Market

Stem cells offer exciting potential in regenerative medicine, and are likely to be widely used by mid-2017. Pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies are showing increased interest in stem cell research. The market will be driven by stem cell applications in drug discovery platforms and by successful academia -commercial company partnership models.

The high attrition rates of potential drug candidates has piqued the interest of pharmaceutical and biotech industries in stem cell use during the drug discovery phase, notes the analyst of this research. Previously, animal cell lines, tumours, or genetic transformation have been the traditional platform for testing drug candidates; however, these abnormal' cells have significantly contributed to a lack of translation into clinical studies. Many academic institutes and research centres are collaborating with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in stem cell research. This will provide impetus to the emergence of novel cell-based therapies.

Host of Challenges Need to be Confronted before Stem Cell Therapeutics can Realise its Potential

Key challenges to market development relate to reimbursement, ethics and the complexity of clinical trials. Securing reimbursement for stem cell therapeutic products is expected to be critical for commercial success. However, stem cell therapies are likely to be expensive. Insurers, therefore, may be unwilling to pay for the treatment. At the same time, patients are unlikely to be able to afford these treatments. The use of embryonic stem cells raises a host of thorny ethical, legal, and social issues, adds the analyst. As a result, market prices for various products may be affected. Moreover, many research institutes are adopting policies promoting the ethical use of human embryonic tissues. Such policies are hindering the overall research process for several companies working in collaboration with these institutes.

In addition to apprehensions about how many products will actually make it through human-based clinical trials, companies are also worried about which financial model can be applied to stem cell therapies, cautions the analyst. Possibly low return on investment (ROI) is also resulting in pharmaceutical companies adopting a cautious approach to stem cell therapeutics. To push through policy or regulatory reforms, the technology platform and geographical location of stem cell companies should complement the terms laid down in EMEA. The methodology for cell expansion and synchronisation must be optimised to acquire a large population of the desired cell at the right differentiation point, adds the analyst. More research is needed in human pluripotent and multi potent stem cell as it differs from mice to humans. Completion of clinical trials will be essential to ensure the safety and efficacy of the stem cell therapy.

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Research and Markets: Analysis of the Stem Cell Markets-Unlocking the New Era in Therapeutics