Researchers at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and Stanford University are conducting a human trial using adult stem cell therapy to treat people who have suffered a stroke.  The two institutions have carried out the procedure on six patients so far and plan to enroll another 12 in a two-year safety trial of the new therapy.

The stem cell therapy uses stem cells derived from adult bone marrow and given a booster containing a gene known as Notch, which is involved in the development of infant brains.  The stem cells are developed by SanBio, a San Francisco-area company. 

No adverse reactions have occurred in the first half-dozen patients, each of whom got 2.5 million stem cells.  According to Dr. Douglas Kondziolka, a neurosurgeon who heads the UPMC branch of the trial, during the procedure, doctors sedate the patient, drill a small hole through the skull and insert needle into the brain near the area of the stroke damage.  The stem cells are then injected into the brain.

The UPMC-Stanford trial is the only trial in the U.S. putting stem cells directly into a patient’s brain.  In the United Kingdom, ReNeuron Ltd., a British company, is using a similar procedure on stroke patients with stem cells developed from fetal brain tissue.

Ernest Yankee, SanBio's vice president of development, said if there are no safety issues, the company hopes to begin testing the stem cells' clinical effectiveness within the next two years.

This human trial at UPMC and Stanford University reinforces the thought that stem cell therapy holds great promise in treating a variety of diseases and conditions.  Some conditions, such as joint, tendon and muscle injury, are treatable now with stem cells.  Other conditions, such as ALS, diabetes, heart disease and MS, appear to be treatable, but widespread treatment is still in the near-future.

This trial is still enrolling patients.  They must be adults and must have experienced their strokes between six months and three years ago.  They also must have persistent motor difficulties that have plateaued.  For more information, contact study coordinator Julia Billigen at 412-605-3959 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it    

Information contained in this blog is intended for educational purposes only and not for medical diagnosis or treatment.  If you have a medical concern or issue, please consult with your physician.

According to a recent study, engineered hair follicles patched into skin can be coaxed to connect to surrounding tissue and to grow hair in an organized way.  The study was conducted at the University of Science in Chiba, Japan and describe in the April 17 Nature Communications. 

Hair follicles develop when two different types of cells — epithelial and mesenchymal cells — interact with each other.  Epithelial cells grow very quickly and shed, while mesenchymal cells direct epithelial cells to make a follicle.

Previously, Takashi Tsuji, study coauthor, and colleagues had bioengineered follicles and hair shafts in the lab using epithelial and mesenchymal cells from mouse embryos.  Until now, it was unclear whether these organized clusters of cells would make normal hair if inserted into mouse skin.

In this study, the team transplanted a group of the engineered follicles into the skin on the backs of hairless mice.  After about two weeks, hairs began to sprout.  Under the microscope, the hair grown from the bioengineered mouse follicles resembled normal hair, and the mouse follicles went through the normal cycle of growing hair, shedding and making new hair.

When researchers injected the region around the bioengineered follicle with acetylcholine, a drug that causes muscles to contract, the hairs perked up, suggesting that the transplanted follicles had integrated with surrounding muscle and nerves like normal hair follicles.

The study results also mark a step forward in efforts to regenerate organs such as salivary glands that form in a process similar to hair early in their development.

“It’s exciting because it shows a cell-based approach for treating hair loss is maybe feasible,” says George Cotsarelis, MD, a dermatologist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Dr. Cotsarelis, is also senior author of a study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine which showed that bald men have just as many stem cells in their hair follicles as those with a full healthy set of hair, but the “bald” stem cells did not contain normal levels of progenitor cells.  It is the progenitor cells that cause hair to be thick.  Study findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.  Researchers noted that stem cells are still present and may need to be “woken up” and thus male baldness may be reversible.

In a follow-on study, Dr. Cotsarelis and researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania discovered that an abnormal amount of Prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) might be the stimulus that sets male pattern baldness in motion.  The researchers identified the PGD2 receptor as GPR44.  Once identified, finding a drug that will block this receptor could prevent baldness and provide relief to men and women suffering with hair loss and thinning.

According to Dennis Lox, MD, regenerative medicine techniques, particularly platelet-rich plasma, have been used to treat baldness for some time, so researching the use stem cells to treat baldness is no surprise.  Continued interest in the field of regenerative medicine and stem cell therapy will pave the way for a variety of new developments in all fields of medicine.

Information contained in this blog is intended for educational purposes only and not for medical diagnosis or treatment.  If you have a medical concern or issue, please consult with your physician.

A small molecule dubbed kartogenin encourages stem cells to take on the characteristics of cells that make cartilage, a new study shows.  Treatment with kartogenin allowed mice with arthritis-like cartilage damage in a knee to regain the ability to use the joint without pain.

The findings where uncovered by molecular biologists at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation in San Diego and provide new clues in the long-running effort to find ways to regenerate cartilage, a central puzzle in the battle against osteoarthritis.  Study findings were reported online April 5 in Science.

The new approach taps into mesenchymal stem cells, which naturally reside in cartilage and give rise to cells that make connective tissue.  These include chondrocytes, the only cells in the body that manufacture cartilage.  Kartogenin steers the stem cells to wake up and take on cartilage-making duties.  This is an essential step in cartilage repair that falls behind in people with osteoarthritis, the most common kind of arthritis, which develops from injury or long-term joint use.

The molecular biologists screened 22,000 compounds in cartilage and found that one, kartogenin, induced stem cells to take on the characteristics of chondrocytes.  The molecule turned on genes that make cartilage components called aggrecan and collagen II.  Tests on mice with cartilage damage similar to osteoarthritis showed that kartogenin injections lowered levels of a protein called cartilage oligomeric matrix protein.  People with osteoarthritis have an excess of the protein, which is considered a marker of disease severity.  Kartogenin also enabled mice with knee injuries to regain weight-bearing capacity on the joint within 42 days.

Millions of people develop osteoarthritis as they reach old age.  Cartilage serves as the shock absorber of the skeleton, but surgery to clean out torn cartilage has limited success, as does surgery to induce growth of a fibrous kind of coating at the ends of bones that have lost their natural cartilage caps.  This losing battle leaves bone-on-bone friction, inflammation and pain.

Until this therapy becomes available to the public, autologous, adipose-derived stem cell therapy is currently available in the US to treat musculoskeletal injuries and conditions, such as osteoarthritis. 

Regenerative medicine techniques, such as stem cell therapy and platelet-rich plasma, are growing in use and acceptance, not only among sports professionals, but everyday citizens as well.  These regenerative medicine techniques could help musculoskeletal injuries heal more quickly and could possibly help avoid surgery.

Information contained in this blog is intended for educational purposes only and not for medical diagnosis or treatment.  If you have a medical concern or issue, please consult with your physician.

Doctors in Britain have developed a pioneering treatment for liver disease that could save hundreds of lives a year and avoid the need for transplant surgery.  The world’s first trial using liver stem cells will be conducted at London's King's College Hospital and will be headed by pediatric liver consultant Professor Anil Dhawan.

Eighteen British children suffering from rare and life threatening liver conditions will receive infusions of specially treated liver cells removed from the organs of deceased donors.

Doctors will trial the stem cell treatment on children with an inherited metabolic disorder that affects the liver called Crigler-Najjar syndrome.  Children with this condition are unable to eliminate toxins from their bodies and therefore must undergo daily 12-hour exposure to special blue lights, just to survive.  Without daily treatments, a child would suffer brain damage, muscle and nerve damage, and death.

The stem cell treatment will also be trialed on children with urea cycle disorders who are unable to process liver toxins because of a genetic defect.  This condition can lead to brain damage and death without a special diet.  Experts believe that up to 20 per cent of cot deaths may be due to undiagnosed urea cycle disorders.

According to Professor Dhawan, “If all goes well the children we are treating with the cells will show an improvement within a couple of months.  We would expect those children to come off their medicines and therapy.  It will mean the liver cells have done their job and corrected the defects that made them ill.  Then we will have to see how long the effect lasts and whether we have to top up these children with further infusions. I am optimistic the treatment will work.”

Professor Max Malago, a liver transplant surgeon at London's Royal Free Hospital, said, “There is enormous demand for donor livers at present which is impossible to meet. There are patients who are desperate to transplant but unfortunately not everyone can get an organ.  If there was an alternative treatment to transplant where you could save the liver it would offer hope to patients who are at present dying waiting for an organ.”

This British trial reinforces the amazing promise that stem cells hold in treating a variety of diseases and conditions.   Some conditions, such as joint, tendon and muscle injury, are treatable now with stem cells.  Other conditions, such as ALS, diabetes, heart disease and MS, appear to be treatable, but widespread treatment is still in the near-future.

For the first time, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have made early retina structures containing proliferating neuroretinal progenitor cells using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells derived from human blood.

The retina structures also showed the capacity to form layers of cells, just as the retina does in normal human development.  These cells possessed the machinery that could allow them to communicate information – Light-sensitive photoreceptor cells in the retina along the back wall of the eye produce impulses that are ultimately transmitted through the optic nerve and then to the brain, allowing you to see.

Put together, these findings suggest that it is possible to assemble human retinal cells into more complex retinal tissues, all starting from a routine patient blood sample.

The UW researchers envision many applications of laboratory-built human retinal tissues, including using them to test drugs and study degenerative diseases of the retina such as retinitis pigmentosa, a prominent cause of blindness in children and young adults.  It may also be possible, one day, to replace multiple layers of the retina in order to help patients with more widespread retinal damage.

This study out of Wisconsin reinforces the amazing promise that stem cells hold in treating a variety of diseases and conditions.  Some conditions, such as joint, tendon and muscle injury, are treatable now with stem cells.  Other conditions, such as ALS, diabetes, heart disease and MS, appear to be treatable, but widespread treatment is still in the near-future.

Read the full University of Wisconsin-Madison press release here.

Information contained in this blog is intended for educational purposes only and not for medical diagnosis or treatment.  If you have a medical concern or issue, please consult with your physician.

Two recently announced stem cell studies highlight the amazing potential that stem cells hold in the treatment of ALS.

1.  Neuralstem announced safety results were reported on the first 12 patients in an ongoing Phase I study to evaluate the safety of Neuralstem's spinal cord stem cells (HSSC's), as well as the transplantation technique, in the treatment of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease).

Researchers report that one patient has shown improvement in his clinical status, even though researchers caution that the study was not designed to show efficacy.  Additionally, there was no evidence of accelerated disease progression due to the intervention in any of the 12 patients, who were followed from 6-18 months after they were transplanted with the cells.  All of the patients, who received transplants in the lumbar (lower back) region, tolerated the treatment without any long-term complications related to either the surgery or the cells.

The trial has been approved to progress to cervical transplantations.

View the abstract in the journal STEM CELLS.

View the Neuralstem press release.

2.   An international research team, led by the Euan MacDonald Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Research at the University of Edinburgh in partnership with researchers from King’s College London; Columbia University, New York; and the University of San Francisco, has created motor neurons using skin cells from a person with an inherited form of ALS/MND.

Researchers discovered that abnormalities of a protein called TDP-43, implicated in more than 90 percent of cases of ALS/MND, resulted in the death of motor neuron cells.  This is the first time that scientists have been able to see the direct effect of abnormal TDP-43 on human motor neurons cultured in a dish.

Using cutting-edge stem cell research, which could speed up the discovery of new treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) also known as motor neuron disease (MND) outside the United States.

Professor Siddharthan Chandran, one of the University of Edinburgh researchers said that using patient stem cells to model MND in a dish offers untold possibilities for how they study the cause of this terrible disease as well as accelerating drug discovery by providing a cost-effective way to test many thousands of potential treatments.

A press release from the ALS Association can be found here.

Research continues to show that stem cells hold great promise in treating a variety of diseases and conditions.  Some conditions, such as joint, tendon and muscle injury, are treatable now with stem cells.  Other conditions, such as ALS, diabetes and MS, appear to be treatable, but widespread treatment is still in the near-future.

Information contained in this blog is intended for educational purposes only and not for medical diagnosis or treatment.  If you have a medical concern or issue, please consult with your physician.

An interesting article in the December 2011 issue of Life Extension magazine features the eternal beauty, Suzanne Somers, discussing stem cell therapy.  Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001, she had surgery to remove the lump, followed by intense radiation therapy.

After suffering for years with a painful, disfigured breast, Suzanne underwent an advanced technique to reconstruct the breast.  She had a combination of autologous stem cell therapy along with an adipose fat graft, and so far is quite pleased with the results.

While this practice limits its stem cell therapy to musculoskeletal injuries and conditions, the article is an interesting read on where this cutting-edge technology can go.

A link to the article can be found on our website by clicking here.

Information contained in this blog is intended for educational purposes only and not for medical diagnosis or treatment.  If you have a medical concern or issue, please consult with your physician.

An interesting article came out online over the past few days in the current issue of Practical Pain Management, entitled Advances in Regenerative Medicine:  High-Density Platelet-rich Plasma and Stem Cell Prolotherapy for Musculoskeletal Pain.

It provides a detailed, yet readable, view of this cutting-edge procedure that is growing in use and acceptance.

Information contained in this blog is intended for educational purposes only and not for medical diagnosis or treatment.  If you have a medical concern or issue, please consult with your physician.

Two articles in the world news on Oct 18^th illustrate the highs and lows in stem cell therapy research…

Despite the ethical discussion surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells, it is one source of pluripotent stem cells used in many research efforts. 

Reflecting European law, which protects human embryos, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) handed down a ruling, stating “A process which involves removal of a stem cell from a human embryo at the blastocyst stage, entailing the destruction of the embryo, cannot be patented.”  (An embryo at the blastocyst stage consists of about 80 to 100 cells.)

The impact of this court decision was summed up by one researcher who said it means European researchers can prepare these things, but others will pick the fruits in the U.S. and Asia, and the judgment would undermine such research because it would make patents uncertain.

Several biotechnology companies are researching stem cell treatments in Europe and the United States.  Even large pharmaceutical companies, such as U.S. drug giant Pfizer, Anglo-Swedish firm AstraZeneca, Swiss drug maker Roche and French company Cellectis, are starting to conduct research in this area.

Early human trials are now under way in the U.S. using embryonic stem cells for repairing spinal cord injuries and to correct certain forms of blindness.

On the other hand, researchers at the University of Western Australia (UWA), reported that they discovered the ability to ethically obtain stem cells in a non-invasive process – from human breast milk.

UWA PhD student Fotenini Hassiotou’s research follows the 2008 discovery by a team of UWA scientists that breast milk contained embryonic-like stem cells.  This could reduce the need to use embryonic stem cells, which could help future stem cell research activities.

….Stem cell research seems to uncover new uses almost daily, requiring constant monitoring to stay current on emerging developments.  Given the potential that stem cells hold in treating a myriad of conditions, research efforts are well justified.

For more details, here are the two articles:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/18/us-embryo-court-idUSTRE79H19220111018

http://www.smh.com.au/wa-news/uwa-discovers-ethical-embryoniclike-stem-cells-in-breast-milk-20111017-1lt97.html

Information contained in this blog is intended for educational purposes only and not for medical diagnosis or treatment.  If you have a medical concern or issue, please consult with your physician.

The 2011 World Stem Cell Summit, held in Pasadena, California concluded last Wednesday, Oct 5^th.  International experts in the field of stem cell research gathered to discuss research and potential therapies.

One interesting aspect of stem cell therapy emerged – the financial benefits therapy may offer.

Stem cell therapies may apply to some of the nation’s most expensive health issues, such as heart attack and stroke.

According to Gil Van Bokkelen, chairman of the nonprofit Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, “If you suffer a stroke you may be looking at long-term institutional care costs that are hundreds of thousands of dollars or more over time.”

Van Bokkelen went onto say that care for stroke victims costs the nation about $73 million a year.  Stem cell therapies may ultimately be used to treat these patients, reducing long-term costs.

“At the end of the day, it’s really about improving clinical outcomes, improving quality of life and shifting the cost curve in the right direction – providing more cost-effective health care – and that’s how we’ll be able to broaden the scope of health care accessibility to all the people we’d like to provide it to,” Van Bokkelen said.

Dr. Lox agrees that regenerative medicine techniques, such as stem cell therapies, could help reduce costs in some disease states.  This very topic was the subject of a poster presentation by Dr. Lox at the Summit.

According to Dr. Lox, the changing medical landscape with health care reform leaves some uncertainty with the future of scientific advancements in regenerative medicine.  While health-related quality of life care may be analyzed for cost effectiveness, the question to be addressed is, at what point will the ethical role of improving quality of life be offset by cost reductions, and at what point will insurance carriers understand that the advancements in regenerative medicine will ultimately result in overall long-term savings?

CIRM, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, has uploaded a number of interviews and presentations from the 2011 World Stem Cell Summit, which can be found at

http://www.youtube.com/user/CIRMTV

Information contained in this blog is intended for educational purposes only and not for medical diagnosis or treatment.  If you have a medical concern or issue, please consult with your physician.

It came to light the weekend of September 17-18, 2011, that Indianapolis Colt’s quarterback, Peyton Manning had traveled to Europe for stem cell therapy.  The stem cell therapy was to help treat the bulging disc in Manning’s neck, which three previous surgeries have failed to repair.  Apparently the therapy did not help.

An ABC News blog report on Manning’s stem cell treatment in Europe raises several issues: Manning’s actions, as a role model, in seeking an unproven treatment overseas, and the validity of the treatment itself.

Manning is quoted as saying “that I am doing everything I can to get my health back.”  As a role model, Manning (or any other role model) does need to be cognizant of his actions.  But does he not have the same rights as anyone else to live his life to the fullest?  It just so happens he has the means and motivation to pursue all options.  “Winners never quit” is not a bad message for him to send.

Regarding stem cell therapy for vertebral disc conditions.  While the therapy did not work for Manning, and is not FDA approved, that does not mean there are not antidotal success stories of stem cell use with other orthopedic problems.  The recent stories of NY Yankee’s pitcher Bartolo Colon and New England Patriot’s Jarvis Green, each returning to the game after stem cell therapy, or the myriad of success stories of professional athletes receiving platelet-rich plasma (another therapy not FDA approved), while antidotal, should not be ignored.  While we do not condone all off-shore stem cell therapies, there is growing antidotal evidence that stem cell therapy seems to help in many musculoskeletal injuries.

What if Manning had sustained a much more serious spinal cord injury instead of a bulging disc injury?  Would the same physicians criticize him for going to Europe for stem cell therapy?  Put yourself in Manning’s cleats – What would you do if you were paralyzed?  Would you go to Europe for stem cell therapy if there were a possibility it would help?

In the news blog, Manning was criticized for not enrolling in a clinical trial researching the therapy.  In fact, the first human embryonic stem cell trial is now underway in the United States, evaluating the safety of embryonic stem cell therapy in humans suffering from acute spinal cord injury.  Unfortunately, Manning would not meet the criteria for inclusion in this study.  One of my patients is a collegiate football player who sustained a career and life-altering cervical spinal cord injury; he as well does not meet the criteria for the trial and as a result of his lack of resources is not able to go to Europe.

Perhaps, judgment should be put in the context of the individual.  The unfortunate reality that has evaded some professors is the evolving emergence of regenerative medicine, which may not be readily embraced by the insurance industry, is changing the health care environment.  

This will result in a paradigm for the future, a future not so far away.  The concept of a dedicated, outstanding athlete trying to recover would be viewed in a different vein had the injury been perceived as more catastrophic, and worse when the harsh reality emerges that the future of medicine may bring inequality as well.

When this is considered, casting a stone at Peyton Manning becomes a more weighty measure.

Information contained in this blog is intended for educational purposes only and not for medical diagnosis or treatment.  If you have a medical concern or issue, please consult with your physician.

Here is a well-written article on stem cell therapy in athletes.

The article, by David Epstein in Inside Baseball on sportsillustrated.com, tells the story of New York Yankee pitcher Bartolo Colon’s elbow and shoulder stem cell treatment. 

In his article, Epstein also points out that stem cell therapy is nothing new and that it has been utilized for an extended period in many athletes who have undergone microfracture techniques.  Epstein’s article is interesting and worth the read.

Nothing contained in this blog is intended to be instructional for medical diagnosis or treatment. If you have a medical concern or issue, please consult with your physician.