Scientists used human stem cells for lung tissue

Mywebhealthreport.com

Scientists had previously converted stem cells into cells of the heart, intestine, liver, nerves and pancreas, Fox News reports.

"Now, we are finally able to make lung and airway cells," study leader Dr. Hans-Willem Snoeck, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia University in New York, said in a statement.

Patients who receive lung transplants today have a poor prognosis. But future approaches involving transplants that use the patient's own stem cells to generate lung tissue could reduce the chances that a patient's immune system would reject the transplant, the researchers said. 

In the new study, Snoeck's team found evidence suggesting the cells could develop into six types of lung and airway epithelial cells.

The technology could enable researchers to model certain lung diseases.

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Organ regenerating blood vessel cells set to make transplants history

Zeenews.india.com

Washington: Damaged or diseased organs could be healed with an injection of blood vessel cells, which may eliminate the need for donated organs and transplants in future, researchers have claimed.

In the studies, the researchers show that endothelial cells-the cells that make up the structure of blood vessels-are powerful biological machines that drive regeneration in organ tissues by releasing beneficial, organ-specific molecules.

They discovered this by decoding the entirety of active genes in endothelial cells, revealing hundreds of known genes that had never been associated with these cells.

The researchers also found that organs dictate the structure and function of their own blood vessels, including the repair molecules they secrete.

Shahin Rafii, M.D., a professor of genetic medicine and co-director of the medical college's Ansary Stem Cell Institute and Tri-SCI Stem Center, said that together, the studies show that endothelial cells and the organs they are transplanted into work together to repair damage and restore function, says the study's lead investigator.

Rafii, who is also an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, said that their work suggests that that an infusion of engineered endothelial cells could engraft into injured tissue and acquire the capacity to repair the organ.

He said that these studies - along with the first molecular atlas of organ-specific blood vessel cells reported in the Developmental Cell paper-will open up a whole new chapter in translational vascular medicine and will have major therapeutic application.

The 2 studies have been published in Stem Cell Journal and Developmental Cell.

ANI

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Japan team claims they created functional human liver from stem cells: report

S

A team of scientists claim they transplanted induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells

into the body of a mouse, where it grew into a small, but working, human liver, 

the Yomiuri Shimbun said.

EBASTIAN KAULITZKI/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

NY Daily News

Japanese researchers have created a functioning human liver from stemcells, a report said Friday, raising hopes for the manufacture of artificial organs for those in need of transplants.

A team of scientists transplanted induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells into the body of a mouse, where it grew into a small, but working, human liver, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.

Stemcells are frequently harvested from embryos, which are then discarded, a practice some people find morally objectionable. But iPS cells -- which have the potential to develop into any body tissue -- can be taken from adults.

A team led by professor Hideki Taniguchi at Yokohama City University developed human iPS cells into "precursor cells", which they then transplanted into a mouse's head to take advantage of increased blood flow.

The cells grew into a human liver 0.2 inches in size that was capable of generating human proteins and breaking down drugs, the Yomiuri reported.

The breakthrough opens the door to the artificial creation of human organs, a key battleground for doctors who constantly face a shortage of transplant donors.

Taniguchi's research could be "an important bridge between basic research and clinical application" but faces various challenges before it can be put into medical practice, the Yomiuri said.

An abstract of Taniguchi's research was delivered to regenerative medicine researchers ahead of an academic conference next week, but Taniguchi declined to comment to AFP before the meeting.

Two separate teams, one from the United States and one from Japan, discovered iPS cells in 2006.

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Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Nanotechnology Researchers Turn Embryonic Stem Cells into Heart cells

The push towards growing organs for transplantation has received a boost from the latest discovery by the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), the world's first bioengineering and nanotechnology research institute. Researchers from IBN have shown that human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) can be transformed into heart cells using a 'decellularized' heart as a scaffold.

The IBN research team comprising Dr Shujun Gao, Serina Ng, Dr Andrew Wan and Dr Karthikeyan Narayanan (from left to right).
azoano.com
Every day, 15 people die from heart disease in Singapore, which accounted for 31.6% of all deaths in 2009.1 Worldwide, the number of severe heart failure patients waiting for transplant far exceeds the number of available donor hearts. The severe shortage of available donor hearts necessitates the development of other options for heart replacement. Now, with IBN's research breakthrough, we are one step closer to growing a new replacement heart from human embryonic stem cells.

Every organ in the human body has a scaffold or a structure, which provides it with its shape, and within this scaffold are many different types of cells with different functions. Tissue engineering aims to create the organ scaffold - either through the use of synthetic materials such as polymers, or through decellularization, which uses the whole organ as a scaffold after removing its cells.

Decellularization is ideal for tissue regeneration because it preserves the three-dimensional structure of the organ and the extracellular matrix (ECM) - the framework between the cells - that are complex and difficult to mimic. While current methods use specific ECM proteins to transform stem cells into a particular cell type, scientists have found it difficult to imitate the natural ECM.

Using the decellularization approach, a team of researchers led by Dr Andrew Wan, IBN Team Leader and Principal Research Scientist and Dr Karthikeyan Narayanan, Senior Research Scientist and Project Leader, removed the cells from the heart of a mouse and implanted the empty heart scaffold with hESCs to observe if these cells could attach to the scaffold and develop into heart cells. After 14 days, the cells developed into two different types of cells found in the heart: cardiac marker expressing cells and endothelial or blood vessel cells.

The cell-laden scaffold was then implanted back into the mouse where it was observed to develop visible blood vessels. The formation of blood vessels in the scaffold is critical for the transport of nutrients and oxygen to the heart, and has posed a major challenge in tissue engineering.

Dr Wan explained, "By exploiting the intact scaffold of a heart, we have directed the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into cardiac cells. This study is the first proof-of-concept that addressed the complexity of obtaining different cell types in a scaffold using stem cells. The positive results we have derived encourage us to take this one step further, to achieve functional cardiac cells, and bring whole organ regeneration to the next level."

Professor Jackie Ying, IBN Executive Director, added, "IBN's Cell and Tissue Engineering research is actively developing bioartificial organs using a combination of stem cell technology and biocompatible materials as alternative treatments for organ failures."

Stem cells are an attractive cell source for seeding decellularized organs. Besides hESCs, the team also used progenitor cells derived from the hESCs, which are found in a subset of tissues including heart tissues, to see if the two cell types would regenerate differently. The findings revealed that both stem cell types developed different types of cardiac marker expressing cells and the progenitor cells exhibited the same gene expression pattern as cells in a beating heart.

Published recently in a leading peer-reviewed journal, Biomaterials, this new finding could pave the way to the development of a bioartificial heart, and realize the decellularized organ approach for organ transplantation. If successful, xenogeneic organs - animal organs seeded with human stem cells - could then be explored as a feasible alternative for regenerative medicine.

Source: Singapore Heart Foundation

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Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Livers grown in the laboratory could solve organ transplant shortage

Many centers around the world are experimenting in their labs to find ways to repair or grow new organs and the following report gives hope for the future of liver transplantation.

I had the great pleasure of visiting the labs at the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine at Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network and saw first hand the exciting experiments the scientists were doing with stem cell biology and regenerative medicine.

McEwan scientists have successfully used gene therapy to repair and recondition donor lungs that were found unsuitable for transplant. Also, researchers at McEwan are using stem cells not just to try to regenerate damaged spinal cords or hearts but to test medications on organ cells grown from stem cells. They can now generate heart cells from human stem cells and generate liver cells from human stem cells. Heart and liver transplant recipients are especially vulnerable to side effects from medications and the feeling is that new drugs could be tested in the lab before they are ever given to patients. This is an exciting time in organ transplantation as scientists are working to find ways to ease the shortage of organs for transplantation, improve medications and save more lives.


Livers could be grown in the laboratory for transplantation into humans within five years, new research suggests.

By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Telegraph.co.uk

Livers from organ donors are often too damaged to be used Photo: PA

Doctors believe the breakthrough could "revolutionize" how liver diseases are treated and also solve the shortage of organs for transplant.

The techinique could be used to recycle thousands of donated organs which are at present considered too old or damaged for transplantation.

The liver could be 'rejuvenated' using the patient's own cells, removing the need for powerful drugs to prevent the body rejecting the organ.

"The basic idea is to grow a liver in the lab for transplantation," said Dr Korkot Uygon at Harvard Medical School.

"If we succeed it will definitely revolutionise how liver diseases are treated."

More than 600 liver transplants are carried out each year in Britain, but it is estimated that more than a fifth of patients die waiting.

Many livers have to be discarded because they are too old or too damaged to be of any use.

The new technique works by effectively chemically stripping the old liver down too its basic "scaffold" or exoskeleton in a process of called "decellularization".

Onto this frame of connective tissue and blood vessels, they then regrow the new liver using stem cells from the patient. Stem cells from embryos could also be used.

The effectively brand new liver is then transplanted back into the patient.

At the moment the technique will require donor organs but it is hoped that eventually pig's livers or artificial scaffolds can be used instead – effectively avoiding donors altogether.

The technique is very similar to one used in replacing the windpipe of Claudio Castillo two years ago in Spain but because the liver is a more complicated organ it has taken longer to develop.

Dr Uygon and his team's breakthrough is to perfect the technique in rats.

"This scaffold retains for the most part the detailed microarchitecture of the liver, including essential structures such as the blood vessels," said Dr Uygon.

"We take advantage of this remaining structure to repopulate the scaffold with liver cells to recreate a functional liver.

"As we have shown this re-engineered liver performs the most essential liver functions in the lab and can be transplanted into rats and stays intact, with the cells able to survive."

He said he was "cautiously optimistic" but there were still hurdles to overcome.

"If all goes well, to be doing this with humans in 5-10 years is quite possible, which is why this is a significant step forward," he said.

"But tissue engineering was promised to deliver such tissues grown in lab before, and it didn't do quite do so well, which is why I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic."

Dr Martin Yarmush, co-author of the study in Nature Medicine, said the quarter of a million donor livers discarded each year because they are not suitable for transplantation would be an obvious source of supply for the creation of these scaffolds.

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Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

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In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

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Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help 75 to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Science Of Regenerating Tissues And Organs Advancing

We are reading more and more stories about advances in regenerative medicine that are gradually finding ways to replace damaged tissues and organs.

I recently attended a presentation by Dr. Shaf Keshavjee on how he and his team of scientists at the McEwan Centre for Regenerative Medicine used gene therapy to repair injured human donor lungs with a technique that has the potential to make use of donor lungs that are currently discarded. This is a huge advance that could double the number of donor lungs available for transplant and get patients off waiting lists for their life-saving transplant. For more about this click here.

From Before it's news

By Gabrielle Kirk | Health.mil
It may sound like science fiction to many, but the science of regenerating tissues and organs is a reality.

Regenerative medicine is happening now and improving the lives of service members and veterans, said Army Col. (Dr.) Robert Vandre of the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM).

“Regenerative medicine will change the way we practice medicine in the future,” Vandre said during a session at the 2010 Military Health System Conference Jan 27.

While researchers cannot yet regenerate limbs, the biomaterials engineered so far can help injured service members heal and recover by forming new bone, skin, nerves, tendons, muscles, and blood vessels to replace damaged tissues and organs.

Vandre explained that although organ transplants have been occurring for more than 50 years, people can die waiting for an organ match and there is always the possibility of organ rejection after a transplant.

“Regenerative medicine is the way to solve that problem,” said Vandre. Along with new techniques that reduce rejection and a patient’s dependence on anti-rejection drugs, scientists can now create or repair organs using a patient’s cells and a biodegradable material called scaffolds that create the organ’s shape.

Another area where regenerative medicine could make a difference is in preventing limb amputation. If muscle or nerves are destroyed, but a limb is still intact, many patients will first choose surgeries and therapies and then often decide to amputate years after the injury because of pain or limitations, said Vandre. “If you can grow the muscle back, then you wouldn’t have to amputate.”

With more than $250 million in funding for the next five years, AFIRM is made up of two civilian research consortia working with the U.S. Army Institute for Surgical Research in Fort Sam Houston, Texas. One consortium is led by Rutgers University and the Cleveland Clinic and the other is led by Wake Forest University and the University of Pittsburgh.

In 2009 a hand transplant for a Marine that took place at the University of Pittsburgh utilized a new technique of implanting some of the donor’s bone marrow cells into the recipient to decrease the likelihood of rejection. Speaking to the success of the procedure, Vandre said, “Now he is an apprentice electrician, and he could never be an electrician with one hand.”

AFIRM’s top areas of emphasis are facial reconstruction, scar-free healing, salvage, and reconstruction of limbs and digits, burn repair, and muscle repair.

Vandre encouraged military doctors in the audience to consider their patients for clinical trials in 2010, which include hand transplants, face transplants, burn treatments, scar revision, and skin grafts. Information on how to apply for any of these clinical trials is available at http://www.afirm.mil.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant.

Stem Cells Poised to Grow Organs for Transplant

Regenerative medicine describes the emerging field of biotechnology that aims to repair, replace and/or regenerate damaged tissues and organs in vivo (in the living body) by stimulating previously irreparable organs to heal themselves.

In Toronto, where I received my life-saving lung transplant, The McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine's vision is to be a world-renowned center for stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. To achieve this ambitious goal, the team of McEwen Investigators is working together to accelerate the development of more effective treatments for conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, respiratory disease and spinal cord injury.

Press Release
Zannos Grekos, MD Presents Clinical Data of Research with Adult Stem Cells to Physicians at International Regenerative Biomedicine Conference

MarketWatch

"Regenocyte Therapeutic is currently using Adult Stem Cells Therapy to treat Congestive Heart Failure, Cardiomyopathy, Peripheral Artery Disease, Coronary Artery Disease, Kidney Disease, Ischemic Heart Disease, Pulmonary diseases (COPD, Pulmonary Fibrosis, and Pulmonary Hypertension) and Early Senile Dementia."

LAS VEGAS, Nev., Dec 22, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- At the 16th Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine & Regenerative Biomedical Technologies in Las Vegas, Zannos Grekos, MD, director of Cardiac and Vascular Disease for Regenocyte Therapeutic, addressed physicians from around the world with a presentation on patients treated with pre-engineered Adult Stem Cells. In the presentation, Grekos showed the successful engraftment of stem cells into damaged organs and subsequent regeneration of tissue.

The clinical success has spurred a project entailing growing organs for transplant from patients' own stem cells using technology developed by National Aeronautic Space Association (NASA). In describing details of the stem cells project Grekos stated, "This is the logical next step in harnessing the regenerative power of stem cells. This will be the next phase in turning science into medicine."

The presentation also cited stem cells treatment results at one month through one year follow up. The Regenocyte team of international scientists and physicians have been treating cardiac, vascular, pulmonary, and kidney diseases, with plans next year to accept patients suffering from macular degeneration and neurological diseases.

Athina Kyritsis, MD, chair of Regenocyte's Medical Advisory Committee, explains "the findings presented today are based on several years of Regenocyte's clinical experience using Autologous Adult Stem Cell Therapy. I believe we have only begun to discover what Adult Stem Cells can accomplish in altering the course of diseases currently believed to be untreatable with not only improved clinical results, but also a financial savings to society."

Dr. Grekos also highlighted several case studies to illustrate his team's success with Adult Stem Cells. According to their findings, cardiac disease patients experience an average increase of 21% in ejection rates as well as measurable improvements in congestive heart failure class status, some in as little as one month post-treatment.

"We are able to bring patients from a Class IV congestive heart failure status to a Class II status in less than 180 days," said Grekos. Regenocyte Therapeutic's clinical data from PET scans confirm that Adult Stem Cells have the ability to engraft themselves into areas damaged by myocardial infarction (heart attacks) and turn into viable new heart muscle.

"Three months after treatment, cardiac nuclear scans of the areas treated reveal reversal of damage. We have been able to take patients off the transplant list, and we have been doing it consistently."

Most recently, physicians at the Dominican Republic division of Regenocyte announced clinical results of a 46-year-old patient with pulmonary hypertension who was treated with Adult Stem Cells. His pulmonary artery mean pressure went from 41mmHg (severe pulmonary hypertension) to 24 mmHg (normal) in six months. The patient's saturations are now consistently high and he no longer needs to be supplemented with oxygen continuously or considered for a lung transplant. Another patient was successfully treated for cardiac sequelae of Fabry's Disease, and is also no longer considered for heart transplant.

Hector Rosario, MD, chief of Interventional Cardiology for the Dominican Republic division of Regenocyte, is thrilled with the clinical outcomes to date. "It is personally very gratifying to alter the prognosis in patients who have exhausted all other options," Rosario says.

Leonel Francisco Liriano, MD, professor of medicine at Pontifical Catholic University School of Medicine and medical director of the Regenocyte Dominican Republic division added that "patient safety is always paramount. We're achieving these results with a treatment that poses minimal risk, much lower than traditional surgical procedures."

Regenocyte Therapeutic is currently using Adult Stem Cells Therapy to treat Congestive Heart Failure, Cardiomyopathy, Peripheral Artery Disease, Coronary Artery Disease, Kidney Disease, Ischemic Heart Disease, Pulmonary diseases (COPD, Pulmonary Fibrosis, and Pulmonary Hypertension) and Early Senile Dementia. Patients can call 866-216-5710 or visit Regenocyte Therapeutic for information or consultation.

SOURCE: Regenocyte Therapeutic LLC Regenocyte Therapeutic

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Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

I wish everyone Happy Holidays
and all the best for 2009!

Transplant using trachea grown from patient's own stem cells a world first

Claudia Castillo, the patient in the ground-breaking operation. Photo: AP

Julia Medew The Age

IN WHAT is being hailed as a world first that could revolutionise organ transplants, doctors in Spain have replaced a woman's damaged windpipe using one created from stem cells in a laboratory.

Claudia Castillo, 30, a mother of two, is living a healthy life five months after receiving the transplant in Barcelona, her doctors reported in Lancet medical journal yesterday.

Scientists used "tissue engineering" to create the windpipe, or trachea — a technique that involved using a donor's windpipe as a biological "scaffold" for Ms Castillo's stem cells to grow around.

The donor's trachea was essentially scrubbed clean with a high-tech detergent solution before being lined with stem cells taken from Ms Castillo's bone marrow and cultivated in a laboratory.

Stem cells are "master cells" that can be manipulated in a laboratory to become any other cell in the body.

Professor Martin Birchall, an author of the study based at the University of Bristol in Britain, said the operation proved doctors were on "the verge of a new age in surgical care" that could radically improve surgeons' ability to treat patients with serious diseases.

Ms Castillo, who had tuberculosis, was facing the loss of her left lung after the tube-like branch connecting it to the trachea became infected and collapsed beyond repair.

The loss of a normal airway is devastating, and attempts to replace them have met with serious problems such as rejection by the immune system, the uncontrolled die-off of cells (necrosis) and lethal bleeding.

Because Ms Castillo's new trachea was made from her own cells, she has not needed powerful drugs to prevent her body rejecting the organ.

Avoiding the use of these drugs also means that, unlike other transplant patients, she will not be at increased risk of cancer and other diseases — another significant advance.

Scientists hailed the procedure as a medical milestone and predicted surgeons could regularly be replacing hearts with laboratory-grown organs within 20 years.

The team behind the operation hopes to replicate the procedure to grow voice boxes within five years and says that from there the door would be open to use the technology to create any organ including a bladder, kidney or even a heart.

Rodney Dilley, the principal scientist at Melbourne's Bernard O'Brien Institute who recently created beating heart muscle cells from human fat using stem cells, said the procedure was a significant breakthrough.

"The fact that the trachea has been functional for five or six months is fabulous," he said.

Dr Dilley said the operation was encouraging and meant scientists may now look more seriously at using biomaterial as "scaffolds" for stem cells.

Ms Castillo, who is originally from Colombia but now lives in Spain, can now look after her children, walk up two flights of stairs and even go dancing.

"I was scared at the beginning because I was the first patient, but had confidence and trusted the doctors," she said.

"I am now enjoying life and am very happy that my illness has been cured."

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves