Dramatic Uses for Adult Stem Cells – Bibliography
Adult Stem Cells to be Tested in Repairing Human Heart Muscle
For the first time, scientists will be able to see whether injections of bone marrow stem cells can actually help rebuild weakened human heart muscle. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center will inject the cells into five to 10 heart-failure patients when the patients are implanted with a left ventricular assist device, a heart pump meant to sustain them until they can receive a heart transplant. The stem cells will be obtained from each patient’s own bone marrow…
Lead investigator Dr. Amit Patel, director of cardiac cell therapy centers at UPMC and the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, said no other researchers have received approval from the FDA to use stem cells this way.
According to co-investigator Dr. Robert Kormos, medical director of the McGowan Institute, the purpose of the new trial is to put stem cells into areas of damaged cardiac tissue and then, when the heart is removed to be replaced with a donor organ, see what they did.
The diseased heart will be removed when a donor organ is available for transplant, perhaps six to nine months later, so the researchers will be able to see the impact of the injected cells. “No one has ever done this in the world,” Kormos said. In a study conducted in South America, he added, Patel “has already shown the hearts improved, but it’s hard to understand why.”
In January, Patel presented findings from a South American multicenter study in which bone marrow-derived stem cells were injected into the cardiac tissue of congestive heart failure patients in a minimally invasive procedure. Six months later, their hearts pumped better than those of patients who didn’t get the cells. Similar results were found in Patel’s research with bypass surgery patients.
In Patel’s new U.S. study, a portion of the patients’ heart muscle will be injected with 25 million to 45 million stem cells that have been isolated from their own bone marrow. Ordinary blood serum will be injected into another portion of the tissue for comparison purposes.
The procedures will be done when the patient gets the assist device to bolster heart pumping.
Patel suspects that heart function improvement is the result of a combination of several mechanisms. The stem cells, which have the ability to generate specialized cells, could produce cardiac cells and new blood vessels in impaired tissue, and some cells likely will fuse with weakened heart cells.
Also, and possibly most important, he said, “when you inject these [stem] cells into those regions, all of a sudden they act like a homing beacon and attract other cells, cytokines and growth factors to help make it better.”
Some caution that adult stem cells might not live up to expectations. Researchers from the University of Chicago and the University of California at San Francisco, for example, found in animal experiments that bone marrow stem cells failed to repair damaged heart muscle, although they did multiply and stimulated some new blood vessel growth. [Anita Srikameswaran [email protected] or 412-263-3858. Pittsburgh, Pa. 16May05; Friday, May 13, 2005, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
DRAMATIC USES FOR ADULT STEM CELLS – BIBLIOGRAPHY Adult Stem Cell Research Breakthroughs, Treatments and Cures
Spinal Cord Injuries – olfactory glial cells from the lining of the patient’s nose (1,2) or from umbilical cord stem cells (3)
Skull Bone Repair – girl’s own bone and adult stem cells to repair 19 sq in. of her skull (4)
Liver Repair – adult stem cells (5)
Heart Muscle Regeneration – adult stem cells (6, 7, 8, 9)
Blindness/Sight Regained – adult stem cell transplants (10)
Crohn’s Disease – adult stem cells from patients’ own blood (11)
Systemic Lupus – 90% of 19 patients with autoimmune disorders, such as lupus, are in remissionor have improved after treatment with their own blood stem cells (12)
Multiple Sclerosis – one patient improved after treatment with his own blood stem cells (13)
Parkinson’s – average improvement of 61% increase of coordination and fewer symptoms after transplants of the patient’s own neuronal stem cells (14)
Leukemia – 14 of 18 patients freed of the disease; adult stem cells from umbilical cord blood (15)
Sickle Cell Anemia – “Hematopoietic adult stem cells successfully treated over 200 patients. The success rate has been 80-85%.” (16)
Rheumatoid Arthritis – patient free of the disease one year after treatment with her sister’s adult stem cells. (17)
Incontinence – 18 of 20 patients remain continent one year later (18).
Neurological Disorders – adult stem cells from the pulp of baby teeth may be extremely useful in growing replacement brain tissue to overcome stroke damage (19)
Chagas Disease is a potentially lethal parasitic condition attacking heart tissue; it kills 6 million people worldwide every year. Adult stem cells from bone marrow have been repairing this damage (20)
Teeth Regeneration – adult stem cells may regenerate teeth that have been removed (21)
Knee Repair – Toronto researchers this year have found a “jackpot” of adult stem cells in the Wharton’s Jelly which surround the umbilical cord blood vessels and hope to use these ASCs to regrow bone and connective tissue in knees (22)
Diabetes – stem cells from a patient’s own bone marrow were fed into his pancreas through an artery; his glucose levels returned to normal with no need for medication (23)
Cystic Fibrosis – PA and LA researchers have used adult stem cells from bone marrow to differentiate into the type of cells which line lungs and air passages, which may lead to effective treatments for CF (24)
Hair Replacement – adult stem cells may treat baldness (Univ of PA School of Medicine research on mice) (25)
Reconstructive Surgery and Body Augmentation – adult stem cells may replace implants and have “profound commercial implications for cosmetic surgery” (26)
Bibliography
1. Testimony of Susan Fajt at hearing of the US Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space, July 14, 2004. Accessed at: http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/testimony.cfm?id=1268&wit_id=3674
2. Zwillich, Todd, “Paralysis Patients Tout Adult Stem Cells: Portuguese Surgery Soon to Seek FDA Approval in US”, WebMD Medical News, June 24,2004. Accessed at: http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/89/100250.htm
3. “Paralyzed Woman Walks Again After Stem Cell Therapy”, Yahoo! News, Nov 28, 2004. Accessed at: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/041128/1/3ovex.html
4. Howaldt, Hans-Peter et al., “Autologous Stem Cells and Fibrin Glue Used to Treat Widespread Traumatic Calvarial Defects: Case Report, Journal of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery, vol 32, issue 6, Dec. 2004, p. 370-373.
5. Day, Michael, Halle, Martyn and Houreld, K., “If Drink or Disease Destroy Your Liver, Just Grow a New One, ” Telegraph Group Limited, 14Nov2004. Accessed at: http://telegraph.co.
uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/
11/14/nliver14.xml&site
6. Wade, Nicholas, “Doctors Use Bone Marrow Stem Cells to Repair a Heart”, New York Times, 7March2003: A20.
7. Britten, MB et al, “Infarct Remodeling After Intracoronary Progenitor Cell Treatment in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction”, Circulation 108, 2003, p 2212-2218.
8. Perin, EC et al, “Transendocardial, Autologous Bone Marrow Cell Transplantation for Severe, Chronic Ischemic Heart Failure”, Circulation 107, 13May2003, p 2294-2302.
9. Menasche, P et al., “Myoblast Transplantation for Heart Failure”, Lancet 357, Jan 2001, p 279-280.
10. Holland, Edward J et al., “Management of Aniridic Keratopathy With Keratolimbal Allograft: a Limbal Stem Cell Transplantation Technique”, Ophthalmology, vol 110, Issue 1, p 125-130.
11. Burt RK et al., “High-Dose Immune Suppression and Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Refractory Chohn Disease”, Blood 101, March 2003, p 2064-2066.
12. Rosen O et al., “Autologous Stem-Cell Transplantation in Refractory Autoimmune Diseases After in Vivo Immunoablation and Ex Vivo Depletion of Mononuclear Cells”, Arthritis Research 2, 2000, p 327-336.
13. Silber Judy, “A Promising Weapon in the Fight Against MS”, 7Sept2000. Accessed at: www.mult-sclerosis.org/news/Sep2000/LATimesMSStemCellTransplants.html.
14. Gill, SS et al., “Direct Brain Infusion of Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Parkinson Disease”, Nature Medicine 9, May 2003, p 589-595.
15. Ooi, J et al., “Unrelated Cord Blood Transplantation for Adult Patients With De Novo Acute Myeloid Leukemia”, Blood 103, 15Jan2004, p 489-491.
16. Vermylen, C, “Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Sickle Cell Disease”, Blood 17, Sept 2003, p 163-166.
17. Burt, Richard K, “Induction of Remission of Severe and Refractory Rheumatoid Arthritis by Allogeneic Mixed Chimerism”, Arthritis & Rheumatism, vol 50, Issue 8, p 2466-2470.
18. Klauser, Andrea et al., “Ultrasound-Guided Transurethral Injection of Adult Stem Cells for Treatment of Urinary Incontinence: First Clinical Results”, 28Nov2004. Accessed at: http://www.2.rsna.org/pr/target.cfm?ID=208
19. Miura, Masako et al., “SHED: Stem Cells From Human Exfoliated Deciduous Teeth”, Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, 13May2003, vol 100, no. 10, p 5807-5812.
20. “Adult Stem Cells Repair Damage Caused by Deadly Parasites”, Corethics, 17Feb2005. Accessed at: http://www.corethics.org/document.asp?id=n170205.txt&se=4&4st=4
21. Duailibi, MT et al., “Bioengineered Teeth from Cultured Rat Tooth Bud Cells”, Journal of Dental Research 83, p 523-528
22. Sarugaser, Rahul et al., “Human Umbilical Cord Perivascular (HUCPV) Cells: A Source of Mesenchymal Progenitors”, Stem Cells 23, Feb 2005, p 220-229.
23. “Argentina: More on Fernandez Vina’s Work on Diabetes”, Stem Cell Research Medical and Health News, 8Feb2005. Accessed at: http://www.stemnews.com/archives/000247.html
24. Spice, Byron, “Stem Cell Therapy for Cystic Fibrosis?”, Health, Science & Environment, 21Dec2004. Accessed at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04356/430049.stm
25. Morris, Rebecca et al., “Capturing and Profiling Adult Hair Follicle Stem Cells”, Nature Biotechnology, vol 22, no 4, April 2004, p 411-417.
26. Reinberg, Steven, “Stem Cells Promise Better Plastic Surgery”, Forbes.com, 17Feb2005. Accessed at: http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/02/17/hscout524030.html
[Life Issues Connector, “Dramatic Uses of Adult Stem Cells”, by J.C. Willke, M.D., and Bradley Mattes, April 2005]