The Don Margolis Blog

1. What is Type 1 Diabetes?
   • Type 1 diabetes, or juvenile diabetes, occurs when the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the insulin producing cells in the pancreas. Without insulin, the body’s cells cannot absorb glucose. This leaves the glucose in the bloodstream. High blood glucose levels can cause organ deterioration, ketoacidosis, coma and even death.
   What are Stem Cells?
   • Stem cells can convert themselves to special cells like insulin producing beta cells in the pancreas. They also have the ability to repair organs and tissues of the body by dividing themselves without limit. They can be extracted from bone marrow, muscle and the brain. These are called adult stem cells. The cells taken from these areas are able to generate replacements. This is a phenomenal step toward treating diseases like diabetes.
   Objective
   • The objective of diabetic stem cell treatment is to stop the immune system from attacking the beta cells of the pancreas. It is not possible to reverse diabetes with this method or any other method. The stem cell treatment can only stop the degeneration of the pancreas. Because of this, long-term diabetics will not benefit from this treatment. The best candidates for diabetic stem cell treatment are newly diagnosed patients. These diabetics still have a pancreas that can be saved.
   Diabetes Stem Cell Treatment Study
   • Fifteen diabetic patients with ages ranging from 14 to 31 were part of a stem cell treatment study in Brazil. These patients were given drugs and hormones to move their stem cells from the bone marrow to the bloodstream. Doctors used a device to remove the cells from the bloodstream. After two weeks, the patients received chemotherapy to destroy their current immune system over the course of five days. The patients rested for a day, and then were administered their own stem cells for 12 days. This created a new immune system that would not attack their pancreas.
   • To review more studies like this:http://repairstemcell.wordpress.com/diabetes-stem-cells/
   Results of Brazil study
   • The results of this treatment enabled 12 patients to stop taking insulin right away. Over the course of 18 months, two patients have not needed insulin injections. Five patients have been insulin-free for 23 months. One patient received no effect from the treatment. Doctors determined the patient’s diabetes progressed too far. According to Dr. Jay Skyler, with the Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, even if insulin shots are still needed, the treatment is a success if it saves beta cells from being destroyed.

For Calif. High School Students, Cedars-Sinai Presents Stem Cell Essay Competition and Education Program

Newswise — LOS ANGELES (March 31, 2011) – California high school students may compete for three $500 essay awards and attend a free educational program on stem cells sponsored by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Department of Neurosurgery. The winning authors also will be invited to spend a summer volunteering in a Cedars-Sinai laboratory, learning with stem cell neuroscientists.

“Stem cell technologies and therapies are in their early stages but we believe they hold great promise, which we only now are beginning to realize. We’re making this program available to high school students because they will be the next generation of scientists and we hope to introduce them to the exciting possibility of curing many diseases by replenishing or replacing defective cells with healthy new ones,” said John S. Yu, M.D., who will lead the program. He is a neurosurgeon, stem cell research scientist, director of surgical neuro-oncology and vice chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery…

For Calif. High School Students, Cedars-Sinai Presents Stem Cell Essay Competition and Education Program.

Adult Stem Cells Help Patients with Aggressive Multiple Sclerosis
by David Prentice – March 22, 2011

A team of scientists from Thessaloniki, Greece, have shown that chemotherapy followed by adult stem cell transplant can stop progression of aggressive multiple sclerosis (MS). The team observed a group of 35 patients who received transplants of their own bone marrow adult stem cells after being treated with chemotherapy to wipe out the rogue immune cells that were attacking their nervous system and causing their MS. An average of 11 years after their transplants, 25% of the patients in Greece have not seen their disease progress, the researchers report. Among patients with active lesions on MRI scans before their transplants, indicating that they were in an inflammatory phase of the disease, 44% have not progressed. For 16 people, symptoms improved by an average of one point on their disability scale after the transplant, and the improvements lasted for an average of two years. The participants also had a reduction in the number and size of lesions in their brains. But two patients died from transplant-related complications. The results arepublished in the journal Neurology, the journal of the American Association of Neurology. Co-author Dr. Vasilios Kimiskidis said:

“Keeping that in mind, our feeling is that stem cell transplants may benefit people with rapidly progressive MS. This is not a therapy for the general population of people with MS but should be reserved for aggressive cases that are still in the inflammatory phase of the disease.”

Other researchers not associated with the current study commented that this was still a big step forward in the use of adult stem cells to treat MS Dr. Richard Nash of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle noted:

“This is the first long-term paper that’s being published on this.”

Nash is part of a National Institutes of Health trial of stem cell transplants for MS, but he was not involved in the Greek study.

Dr. Richard Burt, Chief of the Division of Medicine-Immunotherapy for Autoimmune Diseases at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, points out:

“It’s the only therapy to date that has been shown to reverse neurologic deficits. But you have to get the right group of patients.”

Burt published a study in 2009 in The Lancet in which 17 out of 21 patients with relapsing-remitting MS improved after stem cell transplants.

In a gentler method of treatment, Prof. Neil Scolding and colleagues published positive results in 2010 for stabilization of MS patients using their own adult stem cells.

Adult stem cells continue to lead the way, showing published evidence of positive benefits for thousands of patients with dozens of diseases and conditions.

FRC Blog » Adult Stem Cells Help Patients with Aggressive Multiple Sclerosis.

Stem cell therapy goes to the dogs

 BY MICHELLE STOFFEL TRIBLOCAL REPORTER FEB. 15 AT 8:00 A.M.

Things were getting bad for Doodle. Despite her youthful name, the 9-year-old German Shepherd was experiencing joint pain from bilateral hip dysplasia and osteoarthritis. She would get sore and tired from long weekend walks and started falling up the stairs.

Her owners, the Dahl family of Oak Brook, had tried different options before landing on animal stem cell regenerative therapy, a procedure that’s a hot topic in the veterinary world. Last week, Doodle received reportedly the first such one-day operation in Illinois at the Veterinary Specialty Center in Buffalo Grove.

The practice of using stem cells, derived from the animal’s fat, to treat joint problems could be discouraging for pet owners because of cost and timing. The animal used to have to go twice to a vet hospital: once for surgery to remove fat cells and once again for the injection of the stem cells into the inflamed joint.  The cost was around $2,700.

Leslie Dahl, Doodle’s owner and a veterinarian herself, didn’t want to go that route. She had tried anti-inflammatory medication, but Doodle’s stomach couldn’t handle it. She tried collagen injections, but they didn’t fully relieve Doodle of her pain. Plus, the animal already was difficult at the vet’s and she was concerned that Doodle would get too anxious between the visits.

So when the Veterinary Specialty Center started looking into a new procedure that allows the stem cells to be processed in the same facility on the same day for about $1,900, Dahl was intrigued.

The process is essentially the same. Fat is removed and then processed by being put in a centrifuge and spun until the stoma stem cells are separated. They are then isolated, activated and injected back into the animal.

In the clinic before a lab was established, the cells were shipped to California, said Mitch Robbins, a surgeon at the Veterinary Specialty Center. The pet would be under anesthesia for removal of the cells, then a second time for the re-injection.

Doodle’s operation, and that of another dog called Fergus, were the center’s firsts in which the stem cells were processed in house, Robbins said.

He said he’s seen about 70 to 80 percent of the animals improve significantly with the treatment that’ s been available since about 2005.

“It’s been around for a little while,” said Kimberly May, a veterinarian and assistant director of professional and public affairs for the Schaumburg-based American Veterinary Medical Association. “We’ve actually been using it in horses for quite a while; now it’s being promoted for joint disease and hip dysphasia. It’s definitely growing, especially for pet owners who are hearing all these anecdotal stories.”

Research is progressing on the treatment’s effectiveness, May said.

“You find out what it really works for and where it doesn’t work,” she said. “We’re still in that stage with the stem cell procedures.”

Robbins said success depends on the animal’s ailments. Pets that don’t respond may be experiencing pain from a source other than  inflammation of the tissues around the joint.

“Some dogs do better, some do worse, some don’t respond at all,” he said.

On average, the animals he treats get re-injected every 18 months, he said. The cells can be stored, with subsequent procedures costing about $600.

Robbins believes the one-day procedure and lower cost will encourage more pet owners to help out their older dogs with arthritis or inflammatory problems. Dahl said her family would have had to euthanize Doodle if pain prevented her from moving, but that would have been a really tough decision since they embrace the dog’s quirky personality.

So far, Doodle’s recovery has been going well. It takes about 10 days to heal from the initial surgery and about four to five weeks to see results.

Doodle is still throwing balls to herself and performing stuffed animal tricks, but is not quite back to going up and down stairs.

“I don’t expect this is going to be a magic bullet to give her back her youth,” Dahl said. “But to get her where she’s not falling and she’s not in pain after going for just a moderate walk, that’s quality of life.

Stem cell therapy goes to the dogs — Buffalo Grove news, photos and events — TribLocal.com.

Professor Birchall carried out the world’s first stem cell transplant of a windpipe in 2008.  Now he wants a clinical trial so he can help 1,300 patients a year with larynx problems. Well done sir!  – dg

Australia is starting to catch up.  This procedure has been done in Asia, Europe and South America…just not in the USA or Australia. – dg

Sensorineural hearing loss occurs when hearing cells in the cochlea lose their function. Frequently inherited, and usually starting during infancy and early childhood, the condition can slow a child’s development and lead to speech and language problems.

Drs Jeremy Sullivan, Sonali Pandit and Sharon Oleskevich from Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research, found that stem cells appear to release ‘factors’, or chemical substances, that help preserve the function of cochlear hearing cells, without the stem cells becoming part of the tissue of the inner ear. Their findings are published in STEM CELLS, now online.

“We are exploring the potential of stem cells to prevent or restore hearing loss in people,” said project leader Dr Sharon Oleskevich.

“The mice we are using have a very similar form of childhood deafness to their human counterparts – except, of course that mouse years are shorter. So a mouse will tend to lose their hearing within 3 months, where a person might take 8 years.”

“We are encouraged by our initial findings, because all the mice injected with stem cells showed improved hearing in comparison with those given a sham injection. Roughly half of the mice did very well indeed, although it is important to note that hearing was not completely restored to normal hearing levels.”

Adult human nasal stem cells were used in the procedure, because they are plentiful, easy to obtain and unspecialised (so have the ability to self-renew for long periods, as well as differentiate into cells with a variety of functions).

The same group of scientists has shown in previous publications that stem cells can also be used to improve hearing in noise-induced hearing loss – a condition that affects both young and older people.

It has taken 5 years to reach the current stage of research, and scientists anticipate that it will take a further decade at least for the findings to benefit people.

How nasal stem cells might prevent childhood deafness – insciences.

Menstrual blood stem cell banking being launched in India | TwoCircles.net.

How to Donate Menstrual Blood for Stem Cell Research

The use of menstrual blood as a resource for stem cells has been an interesting development in the field of bioresearch. The idea of collecting stem cells has been a controversial one at times. With this new method, there is no moral dilemma for anyone involved. In the future, people will benefit from the open availability of these types of stem cells. Currently, one company has the market cornered in the collection and storage of menstrual blood for stem cells. The company is called C’Elle. Collecting and storing your menstrual blood for its stem cells is easy.

Instructions-things you’ll need:

1. • 1

     Order your collection kit from C’Elle through their company website (see Resources).

   • 2

     Freeze the cooling packs that arrive with your C’Elle collection kit immediately upon arrival and continuously until you are ready to package your collections and send them back via FedEx.

   • 3

     To collect your menstrual blood, insert the provided menstrual cup in place of a tampon. This cup needs to be left in for three hours to collect your first of two specimens.

   • 4

     Take the menstrual cup out. It should have about a teaspoon of fluid in it. Carefully place this fluid into the provided vials of solution.

   • 5

     Refrigerate your first specimen while you collect your second.

   • 6

     Replace your menstrual cup for another three hours and repeat the collection process for your second vial. One vial will be used for storage and the other will be used for infectious disease testing.

   • 7

     Remove your cooling packs from the freezer; the first specimen from the refrigerator and package both specimens and the cooling packs in your original collection kit box after you have collected both specimens.

   • 8

     Ship your collection kit back to C’Elle using the provided airbilled FedEx box.

Read more: How to Donate Menstrual Blood for Stem Cell Research | eHow.comhttp://www.ehow.com/how_4587255_menstrual-blood-stem-cell-research.html#ixzz1Ia5iwhot