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A World of Approaches to Stem Cells

By Sara Beardsley

Around the globe, stem cell research has met with reactions varying from enthusiasm (as in the UK) to suspicion and distaste. Despite increasingly permissive international laws, no consensus on supporting the research has emerged, even among the selection of "stem cell progressive" countries considered here. The US government, for example, provides an enormous sum ($550m) for stem cell investigations by global standards, but the portion for human embryonic stem cell (hESC) studies ($24m) is only slightly above the spending by countries with much smaller budgets where investments go farther.

Nations also differ on how much regulatory control they choose to exercise. Some have laws that specifi cally permit or prohibit certain practices associated with hESC work, such as therapeutic cloning, but others keep such experiments in a legal limbo. Critics have raised concerns about the inconsistency of the resulting systems: one scientist notes that EU funding has created a "bizarre situation" in Germany, where scientists can apply for projects that are officially deemed illegal. (Funding figures represent estimates of the current annual spending in US dollars on all types of human stem cell research, except where noted.)

EU

Production of new hESC lines: Permitted from unused IVF embryos where legal in member nations

Therapeutic cloning: Prohibited

Funding: $170m on stem cells over the past three years (only $650,000 for hESC research) tatus in some member nations:

France: Creation of hESC lines from IVF embryos legal as of October 2004; public funding is $4m
Germany: Only work on hESC lines predating 2002 is legal; public funding is $4m
Finland: Permits research with IVF embryos; public funding is $5m
Italy: June 12 referendum will consider permitting IVF embryo research; public funding is $6m

EU will not increase funding for hESC projects despite a doubling of the total research budget.

SWEDEN

Number of published hESC lines: 8

Production of new lines: Legal

Therapeutic cloning: Legal as of April

Number of researchers: 400

Government funding: $10m-$15m

Private funding: Cellartis and NeuroNova, the two largest stem cell research companies in Sweden, contribute the bulk of the $35m spent annually there

Cellartis, the single largest source of defined hESC lines in the world, maintains more than 30--two of which are approved by the US National Institutes of Health.

UK

Number of published hESC lines: 3

Production of new lines: Legal

Therapeutic cloning: Legal

Government funding: About $80m

Private funding: $15m-$20m

The Welcome Trust alone has spent $12m annually since 2002.

First license for human ES cell research was granted in 1996.

The Human Fertilization and Embryology Act of 1990 allows the UK to fund hESC research flexibly.

UK's first license for human cloning research granted in 2004. Its recipients in May announced the country's first cloned human embryo.

US

Number of published hESC lines: 46

Production of new lines: Legal, but prohibited with federal funds

Therapeutic cloning: Legality varies from state to state

Federal government funding: About $550m for all stem cell research ($24m for hESC)

Private funding: About $200m

Public funding at state level:
California: $3bn over 10 years
New Jersey: $11.5m (another $380m proposed)
Wisconsin: $375m proposed
Illinois: $1bn proposed
Connecticut: $20m proposed

Federal government allows its funds to be used only on the 22 available hESC lines created before August 2001.

Pending legislation would relax some of these federal restrictions

BRAZIL

Production of new hESC lines: As of March, legal from IVF embryos at least 3 years old

Therapeutic cloning: Banned

Government funding: $4.5m annually planned, allocated by the Health Ministry and the Science and Technology Ministry

SOUTH KOREA

Number of published hESC lines: 29

Production of new lines: Permitted with case approval from Ministry of Health

Therapeutic cloning: Permitted with case approval from Ministry of Health

Number of researchers: 300-400

Government funding: About $10m

Private funding: About $50m

First to create a hESC line from a cloned embryo. In May the same researchers announced that they had created 11 new hESC lines cloned from patients with spinal cord injuries, juvenile diabetes and a blood

SINGAPORE

Number of published hESC lines: 1

Production of new lines: Legal, if embryos are destroyed within 14 days

Therapeutic cloning: Legal, as above

Number of researchers: About 150, in industrial and academic settings

Academic spending: About $10m, from public and private sources

Industrial spending: About $10 million

A pending government proposal would spend $60m over the next four years.

ISRAEL

Number of published hESC lines: 1

Production of new lines: Legal

Therapeutic cloning: Legal

Government spending: About $5m

Private spending: $15m-$30m

Israeli scientists led one of the research teams that first isolated hES cells. They were also the first to show that hES cells could be changed into heart cells, and to show that hES cells can integrate with tissues.

CHINA

Production of new hESC lines: Legal

Therapeutic cloning: Legal

Number of researchers: 300-400

Public and private funding: About $40m

The journal Nature reports that "China has probably the most liberal environment for embryo research in the world", with little public opposition to such studies. No laws govern stem cell research, but the recommendations of the Ministry of Health endorse it.

AUSTRALIA

Number of published hESC lines: 1

Production of new lines: Conditionally legal

Therapeutic cloning: Banned

Number of researchers: 200-250

Government funding: The Australian Stem Cell Centre has $90m to spend through 2011.

Stem-Cell Transplants: A Cure for Arthritis?

Recently, Good Morning America featured a young girl with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis who had been treated with a stem-cell transplant, and the same procedure was subject of a study published in the medical journal The Lancet reporting successful treatment of people with lupus. Stem-cell transplants have been studied in Europe, Austrailia and the United States as a potential treatment for a several forms of arthritis, including juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and scleroderma. However, while this therapy appears to be promising, it isn't for everyone. The Arthritis Foundation wanted to give you an update on this exciting treatment.

What is a stem-cell transplant?

A stem-cell transplant is a procedure where bone marrow is extracted from either the person with the disease, or a healthy donor. The transplants done to date in people with arthritis have only involved bone marrow cells taken from the person with arthritis – so-called “autologous” stem-cell transplantation. Most of the bone marrow cells are removed leaving predominately “stem cells,” or immature bone marrow cells that have the potential to grow, divide and develop.

Meanwhile, the person undergoing the transplant is put through a “cleansing system” to eliminate cells in the bone marrow in the body. This cleansing usually is achieved through high-dose chemotherapy or radiation treatment that dramatically suppresses the immune system. When this is done, the purified stem cells from the extraction are injected back into the body where they, hopefully, will repopulate the marrow with healthy cells, causing a complete remission.

Can I have this procedure done?

This is a risky procedure and is only performed on people with severe, life-threatening arthritis who have failed with all other standard therapy. In several meetings dedicated to stem-cell transplantation in children with rheumatic diseases, pediatric rheumatologists and bone marrow specialists from North America and Europe worked to develop guidelines for deciding who should be considered a candidate for this treatment, details about the preparation of both the stem cells and the patients, and information to be gathered before and after the transplant so as to better understand the impact of the procedure on the person. Currently stem-cell transplantation is considered an investigational procedure, and is only preformed in specialized centers participating in research studies of the procedure.

What are the risks?

A major consequence of stem-cell transplants is suppression of the immune system, which means the body's defense mechanisms are completely wiped out. Therefore, the common cold or a normally harmless virus could lead to a serious, and even life-threatening, infection. To ward against this, hospitalization is required until all treatment is completed, but this doesn't insure protection against infection or other complications.

In addition, there is a risk that the transplanted cells will not repopulate successfully. This could mean that you can be left with no or a partially effective immune system.

Because of these risks, death occurs in five to 15 percent of all stem-cell transplants.

How long does it take?

You can expect to spend between several weeks to several months in the hospital, depending on how your body reacts, complications that may arise and, most importantly, how quickly the stem cells develop into an adequate immune system.

Will this cure me?

Calling a successful stem-cell transplant a cure is still under debate. “I would say that with the information we have at this time, stem-cell transplantation may have been a cure for some of the patients,” says Daniel Lovell, MD, a pediatric rheumatologist at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. While there is often no evidence of the primary disease after a transplant, Dr. Lovell feels that the procedure needs more long-term follow-up before saying that it is definitely a cure. He points out that some of the successful transplant recipients have experienced a recurrence of disease, although the activity was not as severe as it was before.

“This is very high-tech, high-risk medicine ,” Dr. Lovell emphasizes. “It is for people who have no other options.”

3. Former President Bill Clinton is expected to recover quickly from his Mar. 10 surgery to remove scar tissue formed around the lung after an earlier, heart-bypass operation. But for thousands of Americans, scar tissue can't be removed. It results from heart attacks and becomes part of the heart itself. But hope is rising. Doctors are experimenting with procedures to coax stem cells or related progenitor cells -- taken from elsewhere in the patient's body -- to build new heart muscle where scarring has replaced normal tissue.

If it works, the new procedure could save the hundreds of thousands who die each year because their hearts have lost the ability to efficiently pump blood. Right now, the only effective treatment for the condition, called congestive heart failure, is a transplant.

"LIKE DROWNING."  When a patient suffers a massive heart attack, heart muscle cells are stunned and deprived of oxygen. "It's like taking a sledge hammer to the heart," explains Doris Taylor, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Repair at the University of Minnesota and one of the earliest researchers into the possibility of injecting cells into damaged hearts. After the heart attack, muscle cells and blood vessels die -- usually those in the left ventricle -- and are replaced by tough scar tissue incapable of beating like healthy heart muscle.

Over time, the heart's walls grow thin and floppy, and the heart ceases to pump properly. Sufferers feel fatigued and short of breath as blood fluids back up in tissues and seep into the lungs. "It's dreadful. It's like drowning," Dr. Nicholas Chronos, chief medical officer at the American Cardiovascular Research Institute, one of the centers testing the stem cell procedure in patients. "It's a disease that will kill you quickly."

And while tens of thousands could benefit from a transplant, only about 2,000 hearts become available each year, says Dr. Timothy Gardner, a cardiac surgeon and national spokesperson for the American Heart Assn.

The demand for an effective treatment has researchers rushing to try the new stem cell therapies in the sickest patients. Unlike the cells taken from embryos, adult stem cells raise no highly charged religious and moral issues and fall outside government funding restrictions. In fact, adult stem cells have been deployed since the 1960s, when doctors began harvesting them from bone marrow to inject into leukemia patients after radiation treatments. Stem cell therapy is now used to treat other forms of cancer, such as lymphoma, as well and for such autoimmune diseases as lupus and Crohn's disease.

THIGH MUSCLE.  Now researchers are testing adult stem cells and stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood to regenerate such things as spinal cord nerves, skin for burn victims, and insulin-producing islet cells in diabetic patients. But the area furthest along is the use of cells to repair human hearts, says Dr. Andrew Pecora, a hematologist oncologist at Hackensack University Medical Center, which has one of the largest stem cell transplant programs in the nation.

In the heart trials, cells are harvested from the patient's thigh, spinal cord, or blood, then injected into the heart in hopes they'll grow into new heart muscle or blood vessel cells. If the process works, within four to six years, stem cells could become part of the treatment regimen for patients with damaged hearts, Pecora predicts.

Human trials began five years ago in France and have been focused in Europe, where fewer regulatory hurdles exist. But clinical tests are moving into U.S. hospitals. Five American medical centers, including Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., are involved in a clinical trial that involves injecting cells grown from thigh muscle into ailing hearts.

SERIOUS RISKS?  At the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, doctors are using stem cells harvested from bone marrow. At St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston, doctors are stimulating bone marrow to release stem cells into the blood, then collecting the cells to inject into the heart. And more basic research is looking inside the heart itself to find stem cells or progenitor cells, which are one step further along toward becoming a specific type of cell than the endlessly adaptable stem cell. Last month, researchers at the University of California, San Diego, reported finding cardiac progenitor cells -- cells programmed to form heart muscle during the fetal stage -- living in newborn hearts.

It's too soon to tell how well these therapies will work. And, of course, the medical community has serious concerns about possible drawbacks. What if the bone marrow stem cells grow into something else -- like cartilage -- when placed inside the heart? asks Dr. Gardner. Will the new cells beat like heart cells? If they do, will those taken from thigh muscle wear out when called upon to contract dozens of times per minute as heart muscle does?

A study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology by the the French group that did the first testing in humans reported that 63% of the scars in eight patients receiving cell implants showed improvement. But four patients developed heart arrhythmias and needed defibrillators implanted.

HEART OF THE MATTER.  In December, a 65-year-old Atlanta man, Joseph De Sieno, became the third person to receive muscle progenitor cells, or myoblasts, as part of the the multisite U.S. study involving thigh muscle cells. Doctors cut a 3-inch by 2-inch section of muscle from his thigh, and the myoblasts were isolated and grown in a laboratory. Two months later, they were injected via a catheter inserted into an artery in De Sieno's groin and snaked up to his heart and into the damaged area.

The former UPS (UPS) deliveryman says he feels stronger and less apt to grow tired or short of breath. But it will take another three months before tests can show whether his heart has improved.

Right now, the only way heart patients can benefit from this research is by volunteering for a clinical trial. But if the research goes well, the promise of stem cell technology could finally be realized in regenerating new organ tissue. In the heart. Not a bad place to start.

Adult Stem Cells Bring New Life to Heart Attack Patients

By Darla Sitton
CBN News Producer

CBN.com – (CBN News) - For the first time, several medical centers across the country are using adult stem cells to repair damaged hearts.

And they are avoiding the controversy over embryonic stem cell use, and still getting great results.

The human body has the remarkable ability to repair itself. Adult stem cells -- found in the brain, bones, muscles, skin, and blood -- initiate healing after an injury. But now, researchers are using high concentrations of them to make new arteries.

Dr. Amit Patel said, "What we do is actually take them out and find the right amount of cells, and specifically put them into targeted areas."

Experimental tests on more than 100 patients find that after three months of stem cell injections, a patient's blood flow to the heart dramatically improves, and the heart muscle actually doubles its work capacity.

"Patients who are receiving stents, who are recovering from coronary bypass surgery, patients with heart failure; all of these patients have the potential to benefit from this therapy," Patel said.

Dr. Richard Burt at Northwestern Memorial Hospital is building new leg arteries by injecting adult stem cells into legs.

A 27-year-old almost had his right leg amputated because his blood flow was so limited.

Burt explained how the vessel had been blocked, how the blood was flowing in one place and then just stopped. “Now, three months after injections of stem cells in that area, there's a new vessel bringing the blood down," Burt said.

” The pain is gone,” said patient Jeremy Kotner. “I can walk farther, and because of that, I feel a lot better."

Researchers say that down the road, the miracle of making blood vessels from adult stem cells may become a common form of treatment.

Adult Stem Cells Found in Hair Follicles

Researchers say finding means patients could be their own donors

HealthDay

By Robert Preidt

Friday, December 15, 2006

FRIDAY, Dec. 15 (HealthDay News) -- Adult stem cells found in the bulge of hair follicles may provide an alternative to embryonic stem cells, say researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

Like embryonic stem cells, these epidermal neural crest stem cells have a high degree of plasticity, can be isolated at high levels of purity, and can be expanded in culture, the researchers said.

And, similar to other types of adult stem cells, the epidermal neural crest stem cells can be harvested through a minimally invasive procedure. This means that it may be possible to use a patient's own hair as source for stem cell therapy.

The researchers tested the epidermal neural crest stem cells in mice and achieved promising results.

"We grafted the cells into mice that have spinal cord injuries and were encouraged by the results. The cells survived and integrated into the spinal cord, remaining at the site of transplantation and not forming tumors," lead researcher Maya Sieber-Blum, a professor of cell biology, neurobiology and anatomy, said in a prepared statement.

The findings were published in a recent issue of the journal Stem Cells: The International Journal of Cell Differentiation and Proliferation.

These types of cells may prove useful in treating a number of conditions, such as Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and stroke.

"We see the potential for cell-replacement therapy in which patients can be their own donors, which would avoid ethical issues [associated with embryonic stem cells] and reduce the possibility of tissue incompatibility," Sieber-Blum said.

Stem Cell Technique Could Help Kids Avoid Root Canal

Thursday, December 21, 2006

THURSDAY, Dec. 21 (HealthDay News) -- The promise of stem cells may someday help kids say goodbye to the dreaded root canal, scientists report.

A new, less-invasive treatment leaves the soft inner pulp intact, allowing the young tooth's stem cells to continue tooth formation.

"Removing infected tissue by root canal is invasive, and, by doing that, we stop the tooth's continuous maturation process and leave behind a child with a thin eggshell of a tooth that is weak and susceptible to fracture," explained researcher Dr. George T.-J. Huang, an endodontist (root canal specialist) and an associate professor with the University of Maryland's College of Dental Surgery.

In the December 2006 issue of the Journal of Endodontics, his team reviewed four cases of preteen tooth decay treated by Taiwanese dentists who cleaned infected tooth tissue but did not remove it -- leaving pulp stem cells to remain in place. These stem cells went on to help the teeth recover, regenerate, and mature into strong healthy teeth.

The researchers stressed that the stem cells in question are adult stem cells (rather than controversial embryonic stem cells) that all children and adults possess. And the cleaning procedure that they used to replace traditional root canal is based on the application of a bleaching substance, rather than any introduction of externally derived stem cells.

"By leaving the tissue and just removing the infection, we observed in these cases that not only are the gums healed and the children's teeth free from infection and abscesses but, most importantly, there is a stem-cell aided completion of the root formation and tooth maturation over time," Huang said.

His team focused on a common form of tooth decay called periodontitis. The condition stems from deposits of bacterial plaque below the gum line that can lead to tissue and bone decay, gum recession, exposure of tooth roots, and eventually tooth loss.

Endodontists typically offer patients root canal to treat this condition. Root canal involves the use of dental instruments to remove the infected soft pulp tissue -- commonly referred to as "nerve" tissue -- located in the center of the tooth. The hollowed-out pulp chamber that once housed the extracted tissue is then filled and sealed to prevent re-infection or the spread of bacteria to other areas.

According to dental experts, the excised nerve tissue is not critical to normal oral function once adult teeth have matured, so removal of degenerated matter does not induce long-term problems.

However, nerve/pulp tissue is vital to the healthy development of teeth in children under the age of 16. The adult tooth-maturation process takes approximately three years to complete from the time a tooth first appears.

That means that in younger patients, root canal can stop this process and boost risks for dental complications, fractures, and even facial disfigurement.

But Huang's team knew that the pulp in maturing teeth is much richer in blood supply than that seen in adults. It also has a greater ability to regenerate itself compared to the pulp inside adult teeth. That's because stem cells inside children's teeth have the capacity to generate into the material that forms "dentin" -- the tooth's primary connective tissue.

So, would periodontitis treatments that allowed stem cells to stay in place and do their vital work leave kids with stronger teeth?

To find out, Huang's team tackled four cases of periodontitis in Taiwanese boys and girls between the ages of nine and 10 who were treated for the disease between 1988 and 2000.

In place of a root canal, the pulp chambers of the children's problem teeth were irrigated with about 20 ml of 2.5 percent sodium hypochlorite -- a chemical compound often used as a disinfectant and bleaching agent.

Following the cleansing, the teeth were dried and filled with a calcium hydroxide paste -- a removable anti-microbial compound. The researchers avoided the use of invasive filling, so that they could preserve the affected tissue and avoid unnecessary extraction of helpful stem cells.

The process was repeated several times until radiographic exams revealed full tooth healing and an absence of periodontitis symptoms.

Follow-up exams carried out for up to 5 years after the treatment showed that in all cases, the disease was halted and affected teeth grew to healthy maturity.

No complications ensued, and the only observed side effect was a narrowing -- in some instances severe -- of the root canal space.

Huang and his colleagues concluded that their findings "strongly suggest a paradigm shift" in treatment of immature adult teeth, with an emphasis placed on encouraging a natural regenerative tissue process rather than getting in the way by using artificial filler materials.

In the future, these types of techniques might even help in the treatment of adults' teeth.

"Of course, more research is needed to further improve the treatment by making it more predictable and laying down more detailed criteria for selecting those cases that have the highest chance to become successful," said Huang. "But clearly, this brings out greater awareness of the possible importance of stem cells for extensive clinical applications in the future."

Dr. Jim Crall, chairman of pediatric dentistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, was cautiously enthusiastic about the new approach.

"It's clearly quite premature to suggest that you abandon root canals in these cases," Crall said. "And, obviously, more studies are needed to determine the parameters or contraindications of this procedure and to ensure a process for following the patient long-term. But, certainly, this is exciting and suggests great potential."

In a related study, a multi-national research team successfully regenerated tooth root and supporting periodontal ligaments to restore tooth function in an animal model. The breakthrough holds promise for clinical application in human patients, said the researchers, headed by Dr. Songtao Shi at the University of Southern California School of Dentistry.

Using stem cells taken from extracted wisdom teeth of 18- to 20-year-olds, the researchers created enough root and ligament structure to support a crown restoration in their animal model. The resulting tooth restoration closely resembled the original tooth in function and strength.

Shi said the hope is the research could one day benefit dental patients who are not appropriate candidates for dental implant therapy or would prefer living tissue derived from their own teeth.

The findings are published in the Dec. 20 inaugural issue of PLoS ONE.

Vistagen Therapeutics Announces Publications Supporting the Use of Embryonic Stem Cells

Date Posted: Thursday, December 28, 2006

VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc. has announced three recent publications highlighting important advances in the understanding of how embryonic stem cells can be reproducibly differentiated into heart and liver cells.

According to VistaGen, these advances are a result of the research efforts directed by Dr. Gordon Keller, a highly regarded international stem cell scientist, Director of the McEwen Center for Regenerative Medicine in Toronto and Chairman of VistaGen’s Scientific Advisory Board.

VistaGen has an exclusive license to these stem cell technologies for all pharmaceutical drug discovery and screening applications.

In the three recent publications in Nature Biotechnology, Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, and Developmental Cell, Dr. Keller’s laboratory announced advancements in the understanding of how to induce and control the differentiation of embryonic stem cells into important immature endoderm cells that ultimately go on to form the internal organs of the body, especially the liver and heart.

These publications can also expand the understanding of the culture conditions necessary to generate large populations of cells which have functional properties of liver and heart cells.

"My team’s efforts represent important building blocks we need to begin to develop new tools for multiple medical applications of ES cells, including drug discovery and screening for the treatment of diseases of the cardiovascular system and liver," said Dr. Keller.

Dr. Ralph Snodgrass, VistaGen’s President and CEO, added, "We are very encouraged by the advancements made by Dr. Keller's research, and are excited to work in concert with him to develop reproducible and powerful biological systems that will open new approaches in the field of predictive toxicology assays involving the two most important target organs, the heart and liver, as well as new opportunities for drug discovery, especially in diabetes."

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Genetically Modified Cells Attack Tumors

Neuroblastoma tumours have been successfully treated in the lab with genetically modified cells that sought out and activated a chemotherapy drug placed directly at the cancer cells, according to investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and their colleagues at City of Hope National Medical Center (Duarte, CA) and the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada). Neuroblastoma is a solid tumor that arises in a part of the nervous system outside the brain.

The researchers showed that the cells migrated to tumors regardless of how small the tumors were or where they were located in the body. The cells produced an enzyme that activated the chemotherapy drug CPT-11 (irinotecan) at the site of the tumors. A report on this work appears in the Dec. 20 issue of the journal PLoS ONE.

Authors include Rebecca A. Bush, Doris A. Phelps, Joanna S. Remack, Karina Jin Yoon, Philip M. Potter and Mary K. Danks (St. Jude); Karen S. Aboody, Elizabeth Garcia, Marianne Z. Metz, Joseph Najbauer, Kristin A. Justus, Shanna Gillespie and Carlotta A. Glackin (City of Hope) and Seung U. Kim (University of British Columbia).

FDA-Approved Stem Cell Clinical Trials Are Available Right Now!

By Bernard Van Zyl

Popular media stories have centered on the controversy surrounding embryonic stem cells. This week amniotic fluid stem cells were big news.

For some reason, almost no attention has been focused on adult stem cells which many scientists believe to be as just as effective. Yet, little is heard of them. The best kept medical secret in America! FDA-approved stem cell clinical trials are being conducted right now on human patients at major medical centers around the nation.

A massive heart attack made me a dying invalid. Conventional therapies all failed and I was turned down at two heart transplant centers.

After intensive study, I located and was accepted into a clinical trial in Boston where my own stem cells were harvested and injected into my damaged heart muscle. I was one of 24 patients in pioneering Phase I clinical trial. As a result of the stem cell therapy, I am now completely recovered.

In my study, I found that adult stem cell therapies are also available in thousands of FDA-approved clinical trials for a myriad of diseases.

When your doctor utters those fateful words, “I’m sorry, that’s all I can do for you,” don’t give up. There are several hundred FDA approved clinical trails of stem cell therapies that could ease your suffering or save your life. I am living proof that stem cells are saving lives right now. After I suffered my fatal heart attack, stem cell therapy changed me from a dying invalid to a vibrant and useful human being. FDA approved stem cell clinical trials are already helping thousands of people.

I am trying the spread the word that when seriously ill patients hear those terrible words from their doctors, “I’m sorry, that’s all I can do for you”, they may not have to go home to suffer or die.

Adult stem cell therapy may be the most exciting medical breakthrough of our time. More information can be found at stemcellssavedmylife.com

The author was a senior research scientist for a major aerospace company and a researcher of rare earth minerals. He is an engineering graduate of The Pennsylvania State University. With the advent of his own illness, he turned his attention to the investigation of stem cell therapies. His study led him to therapies using stem cells for many serious illnesses

Stem cell research by CMC

The Christian Medical College, Vellore, has been sanctioned Rs 30 crore by the Union government to undertake a research project on stem cells. This was disclosed by its director, George Chandy, in an interview to Chennaionline.

“It is a matter of great prestige that the CMC has been selected for this important project. It will have far-reaching implications in the lives of people and it is a tribute to the staff of CMC and its vision to provide as much relief, particularly to the poor and needy,” he added.

The project will undertake research on how stem cells can be used to develop heart muscles and on nerve cells. The project will study how primary cells can grow into specialised cells. If heart cells can be so developed, the heart can become stronger and have longer life, he pointed out.

The CMC can work on the project in an isolated lab and work in controlled fashion, he said, adding that the project would work only on ethical lines. Their work would be only on adult cells. “There would be nothing done to encourage unethical practices,” he added.

Dr Chandy also announced that ISRO had tied up with the hospital under a Rs 1 crore telemedicine project.

Under the scheme, CMC will work with five hospitals in the country - at Manali, in Himachal Pradesh, Raxaul, in Bihar, Jalna, in Maharashtra, Tezpur, in Assam and Gadhag, in north Karnataka - in a bid to provide web-based services to help poor, disadvantaged sections of society.

“The idea is to improve the reach of medicine in several remote pockets using the ISRO satellite for communication, exchange of notes with doctors, access medical records of concerned patients and provide service of experienced and qualified doctors over the Net through such networking,” Dr George said.

There was also a move to network about 40 hospitals in the country with whom CMC can interact on providing healthcare, since it would not be easy for everyone, especially the old, to travel all the way to CMC every time they needed treatment, he said.

The CMC would work with like-minded institutions which believed in service to the poor and the needy as their priority. “They will need to have common goals as the CMC,” he pointed out.