A type of stem cell therapy called hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) often leads to a reduction in bone formation in children, according to Minneapolis-based researchers. HCT is used to treat cancers of the blood such as leukemia.
Working with heart attack-stricken mice, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists has shown embryonic stem cells can help heal heart tissue. A research team led by UW-Madison stem cell researcher Timothy Kamp reports embryonic stem cells transplanted into mouse hearts damaged by experimentally induced heart attacks, morph into functional forms of the major types of cells composing the healthy heart.
The study, funded by the United Kingdom Government’s Department of Trade and Industry, is led by Dr Colin McGuckin and Dr Nico Forraz from Kingston University’s School of Life Sciences. It represents a significant step forward in the fast-developing field of stem cell research. Until now, experts have struggled to find a supply of cells in sufficient numbers that does not offend previous critics of stem cell research. The latest advance may overcome such difficulties.
In principle, stem cells (immature cells that have not yet differentiated into specific types of cells) can be used to repair bone, cartilage, tendon and other injured or aged tissues. These cells can be derived from the patient’s own bone marrow and thus present no problem of immune rejection.
The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) and its affiliate, the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR), are supporting clinical trials to determine the best unrelated marrow and blood cell transplant procedures for patients and donors.
Genzyme Corp. announced that its drug Clolar has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of children with difficult or relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
Idiopathic aplastic anemia is a failure of the bone marrow to properly form all types of blood cells. Idiopathic aplastic anemia is a condition that results from injury to the stem cell, a cell that gives rise to other cell types after it divides. Consequently, there is a reduction in all cell types – red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets – with this type of anemia, which is called pancytopenia.
Researchers studying breast cancer have found that only a small percentage of the tumour cells are capable of moving on and creating new cancer elsewhere in the body, a discovery they hope will lead to ways to target the most dangerous cells.