News archive июнь 2007

INJECTING stem cells into a developing fetus might sound risky, but it could prolong the lives of children with brittle bone disease.

Two teams of scientists have discovered independently a new type of stem cell they believe could lead to better treatments for incurable diseases.

PrimeCell(TM) Therapeutics LLC today announced that it provided research support and pre-clinical studies for a clinical trial to assess the safety, feasibility and efficacy of implanting autologous bone marrow stem cells into spinal cord injury (SCI) patients.

The first U.S. study to transplant a potent form of purified adult stem cells into the heart muscle of patients with severe angina provided evidence that the procedure is safe and produced a reduction in angina pain as well as improved functioning in patients' daily lives

Giving children with type 1 diabetes an infusion of blood saved from their own umbilical cords helped reduce the severity of their disease, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Researchers have shown that bone marrow stem cells injected into a damaged inner ear can speed hearing recovery after partial hearing loss.

A new method of increasing blood stem cells could one day promote quicker recovery of immune system function in patients who've undergone chemotherapy or bone marrow transplant for leukemia and other cancers

In the first trial of its kind in the world, 60 patients who have recently suffered a major heart attack will be injected with selected stem cells from their own bone marrow during routine coronary bypass surgery.

Now, a team of Canadian scientists has identified 1,155 genes under the control of a gene called Oct4 considered to be the master regulator of the stem cell state.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo used stem cells from a mouse embryo to grow kidneys in mice lacking the organs, a step toward creating human body parts for transplant patients.

STEM cells taken from muscle tissue can be used to build new blood vessels for transplants.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have successfully isolated and cultured human hematopoietic stem cells from fat, or adipose, tissue, suggesting that they have found another important source of cells for reconstituting the bone marrow of patients undergoing intensive radiation therapy for blood cancers.

Opexa Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPXA), a company involved in the development and commercialization of cell therapies, today announced the completion of patient enrollment in a 150-patient Phase IIb safety and efficacy study (TERMS).

Harvest Technologies Corp. (www.harvesttech.com) announced today that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) approval to commence a 48-patient 'feasibility' clinical trial using the company's BMAC System to treat patients with Critical Limb Ischemia (CLI).

An experimental spinal cord injury treatment may eliminate the need for drugs that suppress the immune system, Geron Corp., which is developing stem cell-based therapies, said.

Donating stem cells is almost free of risk for donors and is often the only chance of survival for many patients with certain severe blood or bone marrow diseases. This was the conclusion arrived at in an observation study conducted by the Medical University of Hanover and just presented at the Congress of the European Hematology Association in Vienna.

US researchers have for the first time injected human stem cells into monkeys with Parkinson's symptoms, seen as a key step in the fight to find a cure.

Mayo Clinic's initial experience with pancreatic islet autotransplantation in select patients undergoing partial pancreas removal has found that the procedure shows promise for reducing the effects of pancreatogenic diabetes.

ProtoKinetix Inc. has just received the results of studies conducted by ITTEC Stem, Inc. at the University of Finland. These outstanding results using AAGP(TM) in the cryopreservation process for stem cells demonstrate the vital importance of this molecule in the rapidly expanding stem cell industry. This is the first series of tests using AAGP(TM) on human embryonic stem cells.

It is stem cell research's ultimate prize - stem cells made from an individual's own cells without the need for a donated egg or embryo. Now, three research groups claim to have done just that - by reprogramming adult mouse cells into cells that are virtually indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells (ESCs).

As stem cells in the blood grow older, genetic mutations accumulate that could be at the root of blood diseases that strike people as they age, according to work done in mice by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Scientists from the Research Department of Cryo-Save Group NV together with the University of Cologne (DE) have developed a new scientifically validated method to collect adult mesenchymal stem cells ("MSCs") from the lining of umbilical cord tissue.

University of Florida researchers used gene therapy to restore sight in mice with a form of hereditary blindness, a finding that has bearing on many of the most common blinding diseases.

Researchers have identified a new population of stem cells that act to repair muscle after damage.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have illuminated the path taken by human neural stem cells that were transplanted into the brains of rats and mice, and found that the cells successfully navigate toward areas damaged by stroke.

Stem cell therapy is the next frontier in medicine. Scientists hope to someday use stem cells as the ultimate body-repair kit, growing new tissue and replacing damaged organs.But the science isn't moving fast enough for some people. They are traveling out of the U.S. to get stem cell injections that are illegal here.

An Italian doctor has reconstructed vaginas for two women born with a rare congenital deformation, using their own cells to build vaginal tissue in the lab for the first time.

Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine offer future patients greater options for treatment and cure of a wide array of urologic conditions, and controversies surrounding the sources of stem cells as well as their use have fueled increased research.

Dendreon Corporation (Nasdaq: DNDN) today announced the Company has received confirmation that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will accept either a positive interim or final analysis of survival from its ongoing IMPACT study to amend the Biologics License Application (BLA) for PROVENGE (sipuleucel-T).