News concerning developments in science about the storage of umbilical cord blood stem cells and their potential use in treating diseases.
This section is updated according to the news Safetycord deemed relevant for the sector, taking into account families who are considering storing stem cells from umbilical cord blood of their baby.
Our skin renews, heals wounds, and regenerates the hair that covers it thanks to a small group of stem cells. Now a research team has identified two proteins that are fundamental to conserve skin stem cells and has shown that without these proteins these cells are lost...
Researchers at the University of Colorado report the rate of rejection, infection and hospitalization are lower among patients receiving cord blood than those with a matched, unrelated bone marrow donor. Their recent study´s results, they say, may shift the conventional wisdom when deciding on transplant options for their patients...
Like snake oil salesmen, clinics claiming astonishing curative results from stem cell treatments often do not have licensed physicians administrating the treatments, no scientific evidence supporting their work, and they rely on testimonials for advertising and promoting the value of their product...
“Our research into Nanog is helping us to better understand the process of aging and ultimately how to reverse it,” says Stelios T. Andreadis, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the study’s lead author...
An experimental treatment for macular degeneration being tested in a clinical trial has the potential to stop the condition and potentially restore vision, researchers say. Multipotent cells from unbilical cord blood are being tested as a treatment for the most common form of macular degeneration, with the hope the treatment can stop progression of the disease early enough to prevent its worse effects...
International stem cell scientists, co-led in Canada by Dr. John Dick and in the Netherlands by Dr. Gerald de Haan, have discovered the switch to harness the power of cord blood and potentially increase the supply of stem cells for cancer patients needing transplantation therapy to fight their disease...
Writing in the March 28 issue of Nature Medicine, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, with colleagues in Japan and Wisconsin, report that they have successfully directed stem cell-derived neurons to regenerate lost tissue in damaged corticospinal tracts of rats, resulting in functional benefit...
In 2013, the Indian Council of Medical research had introduced guidelines that said stem cell for most diseases, excluding cancer and thalassemia, should be considered experimental. The eye specialists are seeking a reversal of that policy. "We have submitted our results to the government, which have been on par with many developed countries, including Europe, where it´s now the standard of care," said senior scientist Dr D Balasubramanian, director of research at LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad...
Using stem cells derived from human skin cells, researchers led by assistant professor of biology Jason Meyer, along with graduate student Sarah Ohlemacher of the School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, have successfully demonstrated the ability to turn stem cells into retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), the neurons that conduct visual information from the eye to the brain. Their goal is the development of therapies to prevent or cure glaucoma...
Cx601 appeared safe and effective for treatment of complex perianal fistulas in patients with Crohn’s disease refractory to antibiotics, immunosuppressants and/or anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy, according to research presented at the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organization’s Congress.
Nancy Reagan´s funeral will be held Friday, and among those remembering her are some researchers in Rochester. Medical discoveries that would not have been possible when the Reagans were in the White House are happening here today because of a stand the former first lady took. The work is being done in a research lab at U.R. Medicine. Mrs. Reagan never set foot there, but she still has a local legacy...
If this human breakthrough had occurred with embryonic stem cells, the front page stories would have screamed around the world. But it was adult stem cells and so the reporting was muted. You see, the media still–after all these years–tend to judge the newsworthiness of a story based on whether a breakthrough is embryonic. The story is sensational, nonetheless. Adult stem cells have cured blindness and may provide a splendid treatment for cataracts...
Scientists have used a new ground-breaking new stem cell technique to enable 12 children with congenital cataracts to see. The treatment involved removing cataracts from the children´s eyes to allow the remaining stem cells to regrow functional lenses. Congenital cataracts are a major cause of blindness in children, as they cause the lens to blur at birth or shortly after. Developed by researchers in the US and China, the therapy was tested in animals as well as in a small trial involving 12 children under the age of two...
Australian children with cerebral palsy will be infused with umbilical cord blood, in a world first medical trial at the Royal Children´s Hospital in Melbourne. The study hopes to find that stem cells from cord blood can repair brain injury that leads to cerebral palsy, the most common physical disability of Australian children. The trial, led by the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, has started recruiting children with cerebral palsy whose families have chosen to store a sibling´s cord blood at private banks...
A dozen infants who were born with cataracts have regained their sight after scientists used a radical new stem cell therapy to regenerate healthy lenses in their eyes. The children, all aged under two, are the first to receive the treatment for a condition that remains the most common cause of blindness in the world. The small-scale trial on babies and toddlers was approved soon after tests in animals found that the approach should both work and produce better results than conventional surgery...
Doctors say they are hopeful a player for a Chicago-area junior hockey team who suffered a spinal cord injury during a game last month will recover from his injuries. Matt Olson lost his balance and slammed into boards last month while playing for the Chicago Cougars. The 20-year-old, a native of Isanti, Minnesota, couldn’t move his arms or legs following the mishap. Doctors were optimistic Tuesday After Olson underwent surgery and experimental treatments...
Mothers whose diets included increased vitamin D intake gave birth to children who had a reduced likelihood of developing allergic rhinitis at school age, according to recent research...
The study, published in the latest issue of the journal Cell Reports, compared the factors that both types of stem cells secreted, and noticed that many of the substances fetal cells produced were no longer present in the adult cells. Results also showed that when researchers placed adult cells in the molecular soup produced by fetal cells, adult muscle stem cells improved their ability to regenerate muscle...
Cardiac stem cells could be an effective treatment for a common but difficult-to-treat type of heart failure, a new study from the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute shows. The study, published today, has led to clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to test the cells in patients...
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have for the first time developed a way to predict how a specific type of stem cell will act against different diseases. With more than 500 stem cell-based therapies currently in clinical trials, the findings could have an impact on evaluating these therapies and developing new ones...
Melbourne medical experts will conduct world-first trials involving the use of stem cells to regrow damaged knee cartilage, making the need for joint replacement surgery unnecessary. Doctors involved claim the procedure has ceased damage caused by degenerative conditions and has even reversed it...
Women who experience severe heatwaves or cold snaps during their pregnancy are more likely to have small and underweight babies, a new study suggests. It is the first time that extreme changes in the weather have been linked to birth outcomes. Babies who are born smaller are more likely to suffer from health problems in later life, such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease and high blood pressure...
Our nervous system is involved in everything our body does, from maintaining our breath to controlling our muscles. Our nerves are vital to all we do; therefore, nerve pain and damage can heavily influence our quality of life. In Discovery News latest video, "Why Can´t We Reverse Nerve Damage?" host Lissette Padilla explains the central nervous system (CNS) has certain proteins that inhibit cell regeneration, because each cell in the nervous system has a unique function on the pathway, like a circuit, and can´t be replaced.
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is conducting a clinical trial testing Newark, Calif.-based StemCells´ neural stem-cell treatment for traumatic spinal cord injury patients, according to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette...
Just looking at baby Grayson Davila, you wouldn´t know what he´s been through. Until you see the scars on his tiny chest. Twenty-two weeks into his mother Samantha´s pregnancy, doctors at Children´s Hospital Los Angeles discovered he had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a condition that leaves the left side of the heart underdeveloped. "You can imagine, without half your heart it´s hard to survive, right?" said Marco Davila, Grayson´s dad...
Dr. Shinya Yamanaka won a Nobel Prize for his work with induced pluripotent stem cells. Based on that singular research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill pharmacy scientists have transformed ordinary skin cells into cancer-hunting stem cells that are able to destroy glioblastoma. The UNC team say their experimental medical research may someday provide a more effective treatment for this type of brain tumor...
Cord blood, the blood from a human umbilical cord that contains hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (blood stem cells and their offshoots), is used to treat an ever-widening range of diseases. The promise and scarcity of finding compatible cord blood transplants for patients in need had University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists searching for ways to expand these valuable cells in the lab...
Richard M. Gronostajski, PhD, professor of biochemistry, has been awarded a three-year, $1 million grant to study neural stem cell (NSCs) therapies for a variety of brain insults and injuries...
Fernando Lavalle-González, MD, an endocrinologist at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León in Mexico, and colleagues evaluated 16 children (median age, 12 years) with type 1 diabetes to determine the effect of simplified autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in the outpatient setting on long-term insulin independence, changes in HbA1c and the safety of the procedure. The median follow-up was 34 months.
I recently wrote a story about anti-aging ingredients that are a waste of money, and stem cells were at the top of the list. Although stem cell science is exciting -and could potentially change the face of medicine by giving doctors the ability to treat life-threatening illnesses and create new organs for those who need them -this area of research still has a long way to go as far as skin rejuvenation is concerned.
Dr. Andrew Goodman of the University of Rochester discussed the latest research and perspectives on stem cell strategies for people with multiple sclerosis (MS), saying in a presentation at the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum 2016 that such therapies, while promising, are not yet ready for widespread clinical use.
Women who had pregnancy-related high blood pressure multiple times had recognizable heart abnormalities between pregnancies that could help predict their risk for heart and blood vessel disease during subsequent pregnancies and even later in life, according to new research in Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal.
The most vulnerable among us are in danger when it comes to advances in scientific genetic modification. The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority in England this month gave researcher Kathy Niakan - who is with London’s Francis Crick Institute - the approval to modify human embryos for research purposes. In the past, the technology has been used to genetically tweak plants and animals, but it is now aimed squarely at humanity...
The data comes from the first cohort of a phase II trial of its mesenchymal precursor cell (MPC) product, which recruited RA patients who were refractory to treatment with biologic therapies including...
Stem Cell Meetings by International Society for Stem Cell Research on 2016...
Select Biosciences South East Asia is pleased to present the Second Annual Clinical Applications of Stem Cells, taking place on the 24-25 February 2016. Working in partnership with Duke-NUS and The Stem Cell Society Singapore, we look forward to again bringing together researchers, clinicians, the regulatory bodies, academia and industry to discuss translating basic discoveries in the stem cells field into applications for regenerative medicine and cellular therapy...
Diabetes affects around 400 million people across the world. But a potential new treatment has now been identified that tricks stem cells from the stomach into becoming insulin-producing mini organs. The discovery could one day enable such mini organs to be transplanted into a diabetic's body, effectively curing them of the condition...
Schizophrenia, a disorder that affects more than 21 million people worldwide, has a complex set of symptoms and manifestations but among them, damage to memory is a key and difficult to treat component. For decades, scientists have known where in the brain the problems lie, but not the underlying cause or how to fix it. But researchers at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute have unearthed a potential treatment for the disease’s toll on memory: A drug that disrupts a tiny genetic mutation that makes communication within the brain less efficient...
Research has shown that nutrition plays an important role in the rapid structural development of the brain during the first few months of life. Scientists at the University of Illinois interested in this connection have studied the neonatal piglet as a model of human brain and cognitive development for nearly a decade. Though human breast milk is generally considered the optimal source of nutrition for infants, in some cases, breastfeeding is not possible. Therefore, makers of pediatric nutrition products have sought to understand more about...
Stem cell therapy is the use of stem cells to treat or prevent a disease or condition. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells of an organism which are capable of giving rise to indefinitely more cells of the same type...
A new study will evaluate the use of whole umbilical cord blood to help the brain heal quicker after an ischemic stroke. “While previous studies have evaluated the safety of using certain types of stem cells from umbilical cord blood in stroke recovery, this is the first to study the use of whole umbilical cord blood in ischemic stroke patients,” said John J. Volpi, M.D., principal investigator for the study at Houston Methodist and co-director of the Houston Methodist Eddy Scurlock Stroke Center. “We believe that the primitive cells found in whole umbilical cord blood can help reduce swelling in the brain faster and rescue some brain cells that are on the brink of death.”
Now, an experiment in mice has shown the exact opposite. “We thought the baby cells were much tamer,” says team member Paul Veys of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London. “The assumption has been that they won’t fight but it’s the complete reverse,” he says. Veys and his colleagues compared the impact of injecting immune cells from adult or cord blood into mice with a form of human blood cancer called B-cell lymphoma. Tumours rapidly disappeared in the mice that received the fetal immune cells, but kept growing in those that got the adult cells...
Microvesicles can transfer their contents, proteins and RNA, to target cells and thereby transform them. This may induce apoptosis or survival depending on cell origin and the target cell. In this study, we investigate the effect of leukemic cell microvesicles on umbilical cord blood hematopoietic stem cells to seek evidence of apop-tosis or cell survival...