August 28, 2007
An 18-month-old boy from Port Charlotte, Florida is slowly regaining his eyesight after stem cell treatment in China. This legally blind child was diagnosed with optic nerve hypoplasia (a lack of development of the optic nerve) and started treatment at the beginning of August. Eric Stockley of the Charlotte County Health Department says the boy received a series of five injections of umbilical cord stem cells directly through his spine and into his cerebrospinal fluid (which surrounds the brain). Each injection contained more than 10 million stem cells and additional neuron growth factor cells, which guide stem cells to damaged nerve cells - in this case the optic nerve. Once stem cells locate a damaged nerve, they can begin to repair the damage.
After the boy returns to the United States, he will continue to undergo stem cell treatment for at least another year or more. He will also receive three months of intensive therapy to stimulate his sight. The boy must also spend some five days a week for a year in a hyperbaric chamber (also used for the bends). This therapy is expected to encourage armature stem-cell growth.
The Florida boy is the fourth child known to have successfully undergone umbilical stem cell treatment for blindness. Chuck Johnson, vice president of The Braille Institute of Florida, is optimistic, believing that this boy "may be a door opener for the future."
Charlotte Sun-Herald
August 28, 2007
Stem cells are believed the have the ability to turn into a variety of tissues, however scientists are still discovering what makes them turn into the tissues that they end up. Such is the case with neural stem cells, which can turn into neurons (active nerve cells) and glial cells (which provide neurons structure and nutrients) in the brain. Up until now, researcher's understandings of what limits neural stem cells was fuzzy at best, but Nicholas Gaiano, assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering, reports a breakthrough in Nature.
Gaiano's team has identified one of the biological switches that limit the differentiation of neural stem cells. Using embryonic mouse brains, the team showed that a specific protein, DBF1, may prevent neural stem cells from taking their first steps toward becoming neurons. Eliminating DBF1 affected Notch, a well-known protein reaction involved in stem cell differentiation. When DBF1 was eliminated, the researchers could not coax cells back into a stem cell state. Thus DBF1 seems to limit the differentiation of stem cells.
A better understanding of DBF1 would be one step closer to making stem cell research more predictable, especially since the Notch reaction that DBF1 affected is common to other stem cell types such as blood stem cells and cancerous tissues.
Examiner.com
August 27, 2007
Having carried out experiments on rats, researchers from the Center for Cardiovascular Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Washington have determined that human embryonic stem cells can restore damaged hearts and improve heart function to limit the progression of heart failure.
Before this study, published in Nature Biotechnology, attempts to repair damaged heart muscles had been disappointing because many cells died after transplant. But Dr. Charles D. Murry and his team have created a survival cocktail to increase transplanted cells' survival rate.
Rats were divided into four groups: those receiving cocktail treated heart cells derived from stem cells, those receiving the cocktail but no cells, those receiving non-cardiac cells, and those receiving water injections only. All rats not given cardiac cells eventually had heart failure but those receiving the treated cells had a complete reversal of the progression of heart failure.
Because the rat's heartbeat is so rapid (350 times/minute), this procedure needs to be tested in animals with a slower heartbeat before we can even think of applying these finding to humans.
Medical News Today
August 8, 2007
New legislation passed in New York requires the New York State Department of Health to develop programs that make the public more aware of cord blood banking. It is also requires the Department of Health to develop educational programs geared to expectant parents about the benefits of cord blood banking. This legislation directly addresses study results published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine that state only 14 percent of expectant parents are counseled on cord blood banking by their healthcare practitioners. This has been distressing to proponents of cord blood banking given it's usefulness in treating illnesses and disabilities. New York Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol states: "I am very proud of this legislation. Families need solid, reliable information in order to determine what to do with their newborn's stem cells. This bill will help ensure that happens."
Medical News Today
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