Stem Cell Treatment Offers Hope For Osteoarthritis Patients

April 12th, 2008 11:40 a.m. EST

Nidhi Sharma - AHN News Writer

London, England (AHN) - British scientists have identified a type of stem cell treatment which offers hope to the patients of osteoarthritis. The technique, which uses a patient's own stem cells to replace lost cartilage, is already being tried out on goats and would soon be tested on humans as early as next year.

Stem cells help mice with muscular dystrophy: Study

From: Yahoo News.

By Julie Steenhuysen
Sun Jan 20, 1:22 PM ET

A therapy using embryonic stem cells helped restore muscle function in mice with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the most common form of muscular dystrophy in children, U.S. researchers said on Sunday.

They said the study is the first to show that transplanted embryonic stem cells can restore muscle in genetically engineered mice with the disease.

Stem cells are the body's master cells, acting as a source for the various cells and tissues in the body. Those taken from days-old embryos, called embryonic stem cells, can produce all of the body's cell types.

Nervous System Can Reorganize Itself and Use New Pathways to Restore Walking after Spinal Cord Injury

Newswise and UCLA-Health care

A UCLA study demonstrates that the nervous system can reorganize itself after spinal cord injury and use new pathways to restore the cellular communication required for walking. Published in the January edition of Nature Medicine, the discovery could lead to new therapies for the estimated 250,000 Americans who suffer from paralysis following traumatic spinal cord injuries.

For people who suffer Spinal Cord Injury,the news about the possibility for finding/developing a cure to SCI,will always give us new hopes...a hope we live for and we won't stop the fight about Stem Cells Research...we wait and won't hesitate on the fight!

Sandra Villanueva

ScienceDaily (Originally published on November 9th, 2007)

New experimental therapies are being -- or soon may be -- tested in clinical trials that could open the doors to a "golden era" for research to improve the treatments of people with spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, stroke, and other severe movement disorders, scientists say.

"The studies highlighted here reflect decades of basic science research that have led to some measure of understanding the events taking place in traumatic neural injury and disease, and how these events can be modulated to improve function," says Aileen Anderson, PhD, of the University of California, Irvine.

"As a result of this work, we have the exciting opportunity to begin testing these pathways in the clinical setting in an attempt to minimize the progression of damage and, in some cases, perhaps repair it," says Anderson.

The new therapies include an experimental, custom-made antibody to NOGO-A, one of several inhibitory proteins for nerve fiber growth that are produced naturally in the human spinal cord and brain. It soon will be evaluated as a therapy for patients who are newly paralyzed from spinal cord injury.

MS: Is it all in the genes

From: The Scotsman

Lyndsay Moss -Health Correspondent

A MAJOR advance in the search for new treatments for multiple sclerosis was heralded yesterday, with news of the first genetic breakthrough in the understanding of the disease for 30 years.

In a "massive step forward" for research into MS, scientists in Britain and the United States have discovered two mutant genes which increase the risk of developing the disease by up to 60 per cent. It is hoped the discovery will lead to new treatments and help scientists understand the causes of the disease.

The findings are of huge importance in Scotland which, with 10,500 sufferers, has the highest rate of MS in the world.

MS is an auto-immune disease, meaning that the immune system attacks the patient's own tissue. It affects about 85,000 people across the UK, making it the most common disabling neurological condition among young adults.

The disease is more common in countries away from the Equator, including Britain, the US, Canada and Scandinavia.

Stem Cell Breakthrough?

New York, June 6th, 2007

From: CBS News (AP)

Three teams of scientists say they have produced the equivalent of embryonic stem cells, at least in mice, without taking the controversial step of destroying embryos.

Their procedure makes ordinary skin cells behave like stem cells. If the same can be done with human cells -- a big if -- the procedure could lead to breakthrough medical treatments without the contentious ethical and political debates surrounding the use of embryos.

Embryonic stem cells can give rise to all types of tissue, so experts believe they might be used to create transplant therapies for people who are paralyzed or have illnesses ranging from diabetes to Parkinson's disease.

To harvest human embryonic stem cells, human embryos have to be destroyed, an action opposed by many people. The new studies are the latest to attempt to avoid embryo destruction.

When Smell Cells Fail They Call in Stem Cell Reserves

Newswise --

Hopkins researchers have identified a backup supply of stem cells that can repair the most severe damage to the nerves responsible for our sense of smell. These reservists normally lie around and do nothing, but when neighboring cells die, the scientists say, the stem cells jump into action. A report on the discovery will appear online next week in Nature Neuroscience.

"These stem cells act like the Army Reserves of our nose," explains lead author Randall Reed, Ph.D., a professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins, "supporting a class of active-duty stem cells that help repair normal wear and tear. They don't come in until things are really bad."

Senators seek bigger stem-cell royalties.

Bill Would Boost Revenue from prop. 71 Research.

By Steve Johnson
Mercury News

Friday, February. 23rd, 2007.

A bill expected to be introduced as early as today would require companies doing business with California's $3 billion stem-cell institute to give the state a larger portion of their revenue than the institute has proposed.

The bill by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, and Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, would require businesses that make products based on the institute's stem-cell grants to pay the state up to 5 percent of the product's lifetime revenue.

Stem cells replenish mice blood

By Joyce Howard Price
From: The Washington Times.

January 16, 2007

Researchers at the University of Minnesota and Stanford University have successfully used adult stem cells from bone marrow to replace the radiation-ravaged immune system and bone marrow of mice, giving them a healthy new blood supply.
The research, published online in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, offers the promise of new therapies for humans, the investigators said.
For decades, scientists have tried in the laboratory to expand hematopoietic stem cells, which produce the blood system. Success in this effort would mean increasing the supply of cells available for bone-marrow transplant patients.

Despite the difficulties and the whole controversy for Stem Cells Research in California, there is a promising future for our hope: finding a cure for paralysis in a not so far away future.

Meanwhile Stem Cells Research continues getting support, our hope for finding the cure for paralysis and other diseases will keep alive, we disabled people can wait for that day...

Sandra Villanueva

State's stem cell initiative already paying big dividends

Mercury News Editorial

Posted on Thursday, December 21st, 2006.

Two years into the great California stem-cell adventure, here's everything curious taxpayers need to know about their $3 billion investment:

It's working.

Prominent researchers continue to flock to California. Confidence in the endeavor is so high that grants and gifts from private sources to California researchers have totaled more than $200 million so far. The feeble lawsuit challenging the program's legality should be history before June. And regulations are in place to govern the state agency in charge of distributing the $3 billion in grants, the first of which should be awarded in a matter of weeks.