December 23, 2002
Human kidneys grown in mice raise transplant hopes
By Steve Connor Science Editor
Scientists grown entire kidneys in laboratory mice using human stem cells in a development that raises the prospect of growing full-sized human organs in pigs – a breakthrough that would alleviate the worldwide shortage of kidneys for transplant operations.
Scientists grown entire kidneys in laboratory mice using human stem cells in a development that raises the prospect of growing full-sized human organs in pigs – a breakthrough that would alleviate the worldwide shortage of kidneys for transplant operations.
An Israeli team led by Professor Yair Reisner of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot grew miniature human kidneys inside the body cavities of mice in which human kidney stem cells had been transplanted. The kidneys were fully functional and produced urine.
The scientists were also able to produce pig kidneys with the same technique although in both cases the kidneys were the size of the normal mouse organ. The scientists hope now to attempt to grow human kidneys inside pigs to produce organs of a comparable size to those for human transplants.
Alternatively, they might be able to grow functioning pig kidneys inside human patients using pig foetal tissue, although this would require more careful ethical consideration because of the possibility of transferring pig viruses to people.
The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, pinpointed the ideal time during embryonic development in which the stem cells had the best chance of forming well-functioning kidneys with minimal risk of immune rejection.
Their findings suggest that tissue seven to eight weeks old in humans and four-week-old pig tissue offers the best opportunity for transplantation. If taken earlier, the tissue could include non-kidney structures such as bone, cartilage and muscle. If taken later, then the risk of rejection by the immune system is substantial.
The work is part of a series of studies on growing entire organs using stem cells. In 1998, Marc Hammerman of Washington University in St Louis announced he had managed to grow miniature rat kidneys inside the body cavities of mice.
Professor Reisner's team also studied how the human immune system might respond to a kidney grown from human stem cells inside an animal. The scientists injected human lymphocytes – the "killer cells" of the immune system – into mice that lacked an immune system of their own.
"The findings were encouraging: as long as the kidney precursors were transplanted within the right time range, the lymphocytes did not attack the new pig or human kidneys – despite the fact that lymphocytes and kidney precursors originated from different donors," a spokesman for the Weizmann Institute said.
This suggests that such organs may not be rejected so readily if they were ever used in transplant medicine.
The team said the research was in a pre-clinical study stage, but that if all went well, a treatment could follow within a few years.
In SeptemberAmerican researchers said they had managed to grow teeth in rats, which suggested the existence of dental stem cells, and there was no reason why the technique used in rodents would not work in humans.
The shortage of kidneys for transplants is getting worse each year, according to the UK Transplant Authority. There are about 1,600 kidney transplants each year, with more than 5,000 people on the waiting list at any one time.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
How Morphine Can Be Given More Effectively Without Having To Increase Dosages
ScienceDaily (Apr. 28, 2009) — Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have found a way to maintain the pain-killing qualities of morphine over an extended period of time, thus providing a solution for the problem of having to administer increasing dosages of the drug in order to retain its effectiveness.
One of the limitations in long-term use of morphine for pain relief is the rapid development of tolerance. The effectiveness of morphine declines quickly, and one must increase the dosage in order to preserve effective pain relief. However, the increased dosage also increases negative side effects.
The Hebrew University researchers, Prof. Yehuda Shavit and his graduate student Gilly Wolf of the Psychology Department, found that administration of morphine causes a substance called interleukin-1 to be released.
Under normal circumstances, interleukin-1 plays an important role in survival. In case of tissue damage, nerve injury, or inflammatory reaction, inteleukin-1 is released and sets off a process which increases the sensitivity to pain in the injured area. This pain serves as a warning signal, telling the body that there is a problem that should be attended to. In case of chronic pain, morphine is still the drug of choice for pain relief.
However, since prolonged administration of morphine raises the level of interleukin-1, thereby enhancing pain sensitivity, the effectiveness of morphine as a pain killer is steadily reduced, requiring greater dosages with accompanying negative side effects.
The Hebrew University researchers were able to show in animal experiments that administering morphine together with another drug that blocks the activity of interleukin-1 provides more effective pain relief over the long term without having to increase the dosage.
Shavit, who is the Leon and Clara Sznajderman Professor of Psychology at the Hebrew University and whose specialty is psychoneuroimmunology, expressed hope that this research will make it possible for clinicians to make use of morphine, together with substances that block interluekin-1, in order to bring about better pain relief with lower dosages and with minimized side effects. The research will be presented at a conference on pain research on May 3 on the Mount Scopus campus of the university. The conference is open to journalists and to people in the field.
One of the limitations in long-term use of morphine for pain relief is the rapid development of tolerance. The effectiveness of morphine declines quickly, and one must increase the dosage in order to preserve effective pain relief. However, the increased dosage also increases negative side effects.
The Hebrew University researchers, Prof. Yehuda Shavit and his graduate student Gilly Wolf of the Psychology Department, found that administration of morphine causes a substance called interleukin-1 to be released.
Under normal circumstances, interleukin-1 plays an important role in survival. In case of tissue damage, nerve injury, or inflammatory reaction, inteleukin-1 is released and sets off a process which increases the sensitivity to pain in the injured area. This pain serves as a warning signal, telling the body that there is a problem that should be attended to. In case of chronic pain, morphine is still the drug of choice for pain relief.
However, since prolonged administration of morphine raises the level of interleukin-1, thereby enhancing pain sensitivity, the effectiveness of morphine as a pain killer is steadily reduced, requiring greater dosages with accompanying negative side effects.
The Hebrew University researchers were able to show in animal experiments that administering morphine together with another drug that blocks the activity of interleukin-1 provides more effective pain relief over the long term without having to increase the dosage.
Shavit, who is the Leon and Clara Sznajderman Professor of Psychology at the Hebrew University and whose specialty is psychoneuroimmunology, expressed hope that this research will make it possible for clinicians to make use of morphine, together with substances that block interluekin-1, in order to bring about better pain relief with lower dosages and with minimized side effects. The research will be presented at a conference on pain research on May 3 on the Mount Scopus campus of the university. The conference is open to journalists and to people in the field.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Cal Closer to Building "Organs from Scratch"
Cal Closer to Building "Organs from Scratch"
By JOHN BOITNOTT
Updated 6:32 AM PST, Thu, Mar 5, 2009
Related Topics:Carolyn Bertozzi | Zev Gartner | Biology | Genetics | Life Sciences | Science and Technology | Sciences
Scientists say they expect that eventually, clusters of cells could be built on clusters to make artificial organs that someday may be implanted into humans.
Synthetic biologists are getting closer to creating man-made organs made out of genetically engineered cells.
Two Cal chemists announced Tuesday they have assembled different types of genetically engineered cells into synthetic microtissues that can perform functions such as secreting and responding to hormones.
They said that means more complex biological capabilities, like the kinds done by a liver or a heart or a kidney, are not out of the question at some point soon.
"While the synthetic tissues today comprise only a handful of cells, they could eventually be scaled up to make artificial organs," the university media office said in a statement. "Those could help scientists understand the interactions among cells in the body and might some day substitute for human organs."
"People used to think of the cell as the fundamental unit. But the truth is that there are collections of cells that can do things that no individual cell could ever be programmed to do. We are trying to achieve the properties of organs now, though not yet organisms," "This is like another level of hierarchical complexity for synthetic biology," said coauthor Carolyn Bertozzi, UC Berkeley professor of chemistry and of molecular and cell biology. She is also the director of the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
"As synthetic biologists cram more and more genes into microbes to make genetically engineered organisms produce ever more complex drugs and chemicals, two University of California chemists have gone a step further," the university media office said.
"We are really taking this into the third dimension now, which for me is particularly exciting," said first author Zev J. Gartner, a former UC Berkeley post-doctoral fellow. "We are not simply linking cells together, we are linking them together in 3-D arrangements, which introduces a whole new level of cellular behavior which you would never see in 2-D environments."
The Hope: Build Organs "From Scratch"
Gartner and Bertozzi report on their assembly of three-dimensional microtissues this week in the online early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
One type of cell that needs other cells to make it work properly is the stem cell, Bertozzi said
Theoretically, using Gartner and Bertozzi's chemical technique, it should be possible to assemble stem cells with their helper cells into a functioning tissue that would make stem cells easier to study outside the body.
"In principal, we might be able to build a stem cell niche from scratch using our techniques, and then study those very well defined structures in controlled environments," Bertozzi said.
Bertozzi said that most of the body's organs are a collection of many cell types that need to be in actual physical contact to operate properly.
The pancreas, for example, is a collection of specialized cells, including insulin-secreting beta cells, that "sense glucose from the environment and respond by producing insulin. A complex feedback regulatory loop goes into all of this, and you need more than one cell type to achieve such regulation."
"If you really want to understand the way these cells behave in an organism, especially a human, you would like to recapitulate that environment as closely as possible in vitro," Gartner said. "We are trying to do that, with the aim that the rules we learn may help us control them better."
How They Did It…
Gartner and Bertozzi assembled three types of cultured cells into onion-like layers by using two established technologies: DNA hybridization and Staudinger chemistry.
DNA hybridization is like a "programmable glue," she said, that can stick cells together because of the highly precise nature of binding between complementary DNA strands: One strand of the DNA helix binds only to its complementary strand and nothing else. By putting a short DNA strand on the surface of one cell and its complementary strand on another cell, the researchers assure that the two lock together exclusively.
To get these specific DNA strands onto the cells, they used chemical reactions that do not interfere with cellular chemistry but nevertheless stick desired chemicals onto the cell surface.
The technique for adding unusual but benign chemicals to cells was developed by Bertozzi more than a decade ago based on a chemical reaction called the Staudinger ligation.
After proving that they could assemble cells into microtissues, Gartner and Bertozzi constructed a minute gland - analogous to a lymph node, for example - such that one cell type secreted interleukin-3 and thereby kept a second cell type alive.
"What we did is build a little miniaturized, stripped-down system that operates on the same principle and looks like a miniaturized lymph node, an arrangement where two cells communicate with each another and one requires a signal from the other," she said. "The critical thing is that the two cells have to have a cell junction. If you just mix the cells randomly without connection, the system doesn't have the same properties."
She expects that eventually, clusters could be built on clusters to make artificial organs that someday may be implanted into humans.
"Our method allows the assembly of multicellular structures from the bottom up. In other words, we can control the neighbors of each individual cell in a mixed population," she said. "By this method, it may be possible to assemble tissues with more sophisticated properties."
One aspect of the technique is that DNA hybridization seems to be temporary, like a suture. Eventually, the cells may substitute their own cell-cell adhesion molecules for the DNA, creating a well-knit and seemingly normal, biological system.
The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy as well as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Find this article at:
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By JOHN BOITNOTT
Updated 6:32 AM PST, Thu, Mar 5, 2009
Related Topics:Carolyn Bertozzi | Zev Gartner | Biology | Genetics | Life Sciences | Science and Technology | Sciences
Scientists say they expect that eventually, clusters of cells could be built on clusters to make artificial organs that someday may be implanted into humans.
Synthetic biologists are getting closer to creating man-made organs made out of genetically engineered cells.
Two Cal chemists announced Tuesday they have assembled different types of genetically engineered cells into synthetic microtissues that can perform functions such as secreting and responding to hormones.
They said that means more complex biological capabilities, like the kinds done by a liver or a heart or a kidney, are not out of the question at some point soon.
"While the synthetic tissues today comprise only a handful of cells, they could eventually be scaled up to make artificial organs," the university media office said in a statement. "Those could help scientists understand the interactions among cells in the body and might some day substitute for human organs."
"People used to think of the cell as the fundamental unit. But the truth is that there are collections of cells that can do things that no individual cell could ever be programmed to do. We are trying to achieve the properties of organs now, though not yet organisms," "This is like another level of hierarchical complexity for synthetic biology," said coauthor Carolyn Bertozzi, UC Berkeley professor of chemistry and of molecular and cell biology. She is also the director of the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
"As synthetic biologists cram more and more genes into microbes to make genetically engineered organisms produce ever more complex drugs and chemicals, two University of California chemists have gone a step further," the university media office said.
"We are really taking this into the third dimension now, which for me is particularly exciting," said first author Zev J. Gartner, a former UC Berkeley post-doctoral fellow. "We are not simply linking cells together, we are linking them together in 3-D arrangements, which introduces a whole new level of cellular behavior which you would never see in 2-D environments."
The Hope: Build Organs "From Scratch"
Gartner and Bertozzi report on their assembly of three-dimensional microtissues this week in the online early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
One type of cell that needs other cells to make it work properly is the stem cell, Bertozzi said
Theoretically, using Gartner and Bertozzi's chemical technique, it should be possible to assemble stem cells with their helper cells into a functioning tissue that would make stem cells easier to study outside the body.
"In principal, we might be able to build a stem cell niche from scratch using our techniques, and then study those very well defined structures in controlled environments," Bertozzi said.
Bertozzi said that most of the body's organs are a collection of many cell types that need to be in actual physical contact to operate properly.
The pancreas, for example, is a collection of specialized cells, including insulin-secreting beta cells, that "sense glucose from the environment and respond by producing insulin. A complex feedback regulatory loop goes into all of this, and you need more than one cell type to achieve such regulation."
"If you really want to understand the way these cells behave in an organism, especially a human, you would like to recapitulate that environment as closely as possible in vitro," Gartner said. "We are trying to do that, with the aim that the rules we learn may help us control them better."
How They Did It…
Gartner and Bertozzi assembled three types of cultured cells into onion-like layers by using two established technologies: DNA hybridization and Staudinger chemistry.
DNA hybridization is like a "programmable glue," she said, that can stick cells together because of the highly precise nature of binding between complementary DNA strands: One strand of the DNA helix binds only to its complementary strand and nothing else. By putting a short DNA strand on the surface of one cell and its complementary strand on another cell, the researchers assure that the two lock together exclusively.
To get these specific DNA strands onto the cells, they used chemical reactions that do not interfere with cellular chemistry but nevertheless stick desired chemicals onto the cell surface.
The technique for adding unusual but benign chemicals to cells was developed by Bertozzi more than a decade ago based on a chemical reaction called the Staudinger ligation.
After proving that they could assemble cells into microtissues, Gartner and Bertozzi constructed a minute gland - analogous to a lymph node, for example - such that one cell type secreted interleukin-3 and thereby kept a second cell type alive.
"What we did is build a little miniaturized, stripped-down system that operates on the same principle and looks like a miniaturized lymph node, an arrangement where two cells communicate with each another and one requires a signal from the other," she said. "The critical thing is that the two cells have to have a cell junction. If you just mix the cells randomly without connection, the system doesn't have the same properties."
She expects that eventually, clusters could be built on clusters to make artificial organs that someday may be implanted into humans.
"Our method allows the assembly of multicellular structures from the bottom up. In other words, we can control the neighbors of each individual cell in a mixed population," she said. "By this method, it may be possible to assemble tissues with more sophisticated properties."
One aspect of the technique is that DNA hybridization seems to be temporary, like a suture. Eventually, the cells may substitute their own cell-cell adhesion molecules for the DNA, creating a well-knit and seemingly normal, biological system.
The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy as well as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Find this article at:
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Cal-Chemists-Get-Closer-to-Building-Organs-from-Scratch.html
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© NBC Universal, Inc. | All Rights Reserved.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The tale of the teenage toddlers
The tale of the teenage toddlers
By STAFF REPORTERS
Published: 10 Feb 2009
THIS brother and sister might look like cute primary school children but they are actually grown-up TEENAGERS aged 18 and 16.
Shockingly Azad Singh and his sister Laxmi Yadav have not grown at all since they were five or six and still look like little kids.
See incredible pics of the teen tots below:
Neither of the pair, who live in Haryana, India, have been through puberty due to a rare hormone disorder.
Azad is just 3ft tall but is studying for A-Levels in English and Maths with the help of a tutor, and Laxmi, who is 3ft 3ins, is at high school taking the equivalent of her GCSEs.
Mates ... Azad with his school chums
Barcroft Media
The pair face being trapped in children's bodies for their rest of their lives as treatment in the form of hormone injections would normally be given before the age of 16 or 17.
A simple, one-year, course of hormones costing just £18 per day could have allowed them to grow in height and develop sexually.
But the teens parents have always been too poor to fund the injections.
The pair now live in the constant care of mum Manju Bala, dad Bahadur Singh, a casual labourer, and sister Suman Yadav, 12, who is normal height.
Azad, who wants to train as an engineer, said: “I’m taking my exams in April. I’m doing a lot of revision and hard work.
Drive ... tiny Azad takes the wheel
Barcroft Media
“When I go out, such as to walk to my tutor’s house, my mum has to come with me.
“People think I’m still a kid and need looking after.”
He added: “If Laxmi or I go out alone, people stare and gather round us. Some unkind people even shout names at us in the street. So we normally have our parents or sister Suman with us.
“I cannot hang out with boys my age, because they say I cannot keep up with them. But I have two friends at school who spend time with me, and don’t mind that I’m small.”
Laxmi added: “When we were younger our parents had to change our school because the other kids laughed at us because of our size.”
Devoted mum Manju said: “I’m very protective of my children. If I do not accompany Azad when he goes out, people throw things at him on his bike, and might harm him.”
She explained: “When Azad and Laxmi were very young, they were the same size as other children. We didn’t realise anything was wrong until Azad was about five and we noticed he stopped growing.
“When Laxmi also reached five, she’d stopped growing too. We took them to the doctor but he had no idea what was wrong with them.
“Over the years we’ve been referred to many hospitals, but they all wanted payment for any treatment.
“We went to hospitals in Kalavati, Gangaram, but everywhere they were asking for huge money for the treatment. We were not able to afford it, so we had to leave.”
She added: “Once we looked into selling our house to get 15,000 rupees (2,910 pounds) for treatment. But the doctors at Gangaram Hospital could not guarantee us that the injections would work by this stage as Azad and Laxmi were older, so we decided no to go ahead.”
Finally, last year, the family were offered a lifeline by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Dehli, who looked into providing free treatment for the brother and sister.
But when the Azad and Laxmi arrived at the hospital, crowds of patients, visitors, and even people from the street went into to the ward to stare at them.
“We could not face all those people,” said Laxmi. “It was too frightening for Azad and me. We felt we would rather stay as we were than go through that.
“We decided we did not want the treatment, as doctors said there was only about a 40 to 50 per cent chance it would work.”
By STAFF REPORTERS
Published: 10 Feb 2009
THIS brother and sister might look like cute primary school children but they are actually grown-up TEENAGERS aged 18 and 16.
Shockingly Azad Singh and his sister Laxmi Yadav have not grown at all since they were five or six and still look like little kids.
See incredible pics of the teen tots below:
Neither of the pair, who live in Haryana, India, have been through puberty due to a rare hormone disorder.
Azad is just 3ft tall but is studying for A-Levels in English and Maths with the help of a tutor, and Laxmi, who is 3ft 3ins, is at high school taking the equivalent of her GCSEs.
Mates ... Azad with his school chums
Barcroft Media
The pair face being trapped in children's bodies for their rest of their lives as treatment in the form of hormone injections would normally be given before the age of 16 or 17.
A simple, one-year, course of hormones costing just £18 per day could have allowed them to grow in height and develop sexually.
But the teens parents have always been too poor to fund the injections.
The pair now live in the constant care of mum Manju Bala, dad Bahadur Singh, a casual labourer, and sister Suman Yadav, 12, who is normal height.
Azad, who wants to train as an engineer, said: “I’m taking my exams in April. I’m doing a lot of revision and hard work.
Drive ... tiny Azad takes the wheel
Barcroft Media
“When I go out, such as to walk to my tutor’s house, my mum has to come with me.
“People think I’m still a kid and need looking after.”
He added: “If Laxmi or I go out alone, people stare and gather round us. Some unkind people even shout names at us in the street. So we normally have our parents or sister Suman with us.
“I cannot hang out with boys my age, because they say I cannot keep up with them. But I have two friends at school who spend time with me, and don’t mind that I’m small.”
Laxmi added: “When we were younger our parents had to change our school because the other kids laughed at us because of our size.”
Devoted mum Manju said: “I’m very protective of my children. If I do not accompany Azad when he goes out, people throw things at him on his bike, and might harm him.”
She explained: “When Azad and Laxmi were very young, they were the same size as other children. We didn’t realise anything was wrong until Azad was about five and we noticed he stopped growing.
“When Laxmi also reached five, she’d stopped growing too. We took them to the doctor but he had no idea what was wrong with them.
“Over the years we’ve been referred to many hospitals, but they all wanted payment for any treatment.
“We went to hospitals in Kalavati, Gangaram, but everywhere they were asking for huge money for the treatment. We were not able to afford it, so we had to leave.”
She added: “Once we looked into selling our house to get 15,000 rupees (2,910 pounds) for treatment. But the doctors at Gangaram Hospital could not guarantee us that the injections would work by this stage as Azad and Laxmi were older, so we decided no to go ahead.”
Finally, last year, the family were offered a lifeline by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Dehli, who looked into providing free treatment for the brother and sister.
But when the Azad and Laxmi arrived at the hospital, crowds of patients, visitors, and even people from the street went into to the ward to stare at them.
“We could not face all those people,” said Laxmi. “It was too frightening for Azad and me. We felt we would rather stay as we were than go through that.
“We decided we did not want the treatment, as doctors said there was only about a 40 to 50 per cent chance it would work.”
Stem Cell Heart Trials in UK
Trials for revolutionary stem cell surgery in UK 'within a year'
Heart disease patients in Britain could soon take part in a revolutionary stem cell surgery trial that could change the nature of heart surgery andHeart disease patients in Britain could soon take part in a revolutionary stem cell surgery trial that could change the nature of heart surgery and ultimately end the need for transplants.
By Caroline Gammell
Last Updated: 4:31PM GMT 09 Feb 2009
Heart disease affects more than a million people in the UK and kills around 120,000 people a year Photo: GETTY
It is believed that British patents could take the pioneering treatment, in which a patient's own cells are extracted and grown in a laboratory, in as little as a year.
Scientists have worked out a technique where human bone marrow cells are turned into human heart stem cells and then injected into the heart.
Laboratory grown heart stem cells were initially extensively tested on animals and trials on humans in Europe are due to start later this month.
Dr Jonathan Hill, a consultant cardiologist at London's King's College Hospital, is hoping to perform trials on British patients next year in conjunction with King's College London University.
"I have seen the results of the trials and they are very encouraging," he said. "We are negotiating to carry out human trials in the UK."
Professor Sian Harding, of Imperial College London, said being able to convert bone marrow stem cells into heart stem cell was a "big leap forward" in finding an "effective" treatment for heart failure.
"Placing heart stem cells into the heart to repair has a very good chance of working because the stem cells are the patient's own there are no problems with rejection," she said.
Prof Harding is working on turning embryo stem cells into heart stem cells but said her research was "still years away" from being used in patients.
Dr Duncan Dymond, a consultant cardiologist at London's Bart's Hospital, added: "Turning human stem cells into human heart cells is very exciting news.
"People with bad heart failure often lead a wretched life confined to home and unable to get out and about. If you are lucky you might get a heart transplant but many simply die before their time."
Last month, a method of cloning specialist versions of heart stem cells - known as "progenitor" cells - found in small quantities in human hearts received an international innovation award.
Last year, the Daily Telegraph disclosed how two heart attack patients in Britain had stem cells taken from bone marrow injected into their hearts in a bid to repair damaged tissue.
The most recent process was developed at the Mayo Clinic research centre in Minnesota.
As part of the planned human trials, 40 millilitres of bone marrow will be taken from a volunteer's hips.
The bone marrow is then grown in a laboratory into human heart stem cells using a special 'growth factor' protein.
The growth factor delivers a chemical signal to the stem cells to turn them from bone marrow cells into heart cells.
These cells are then infused into the patient's heart via a catheter in the groin and an improvement in a patient's condition is expected within a couple of weeks.
The development was disclosed during a major stem cell conference in New York and has been submitted to a leading medical journal.
Dr Christian Homsy of Cardio3 Biosciences - the company which is developing human heart stem cells - said: "Human heart stem cells repaired damaged areas of mice hearts in our trials. And we are convinced that we can do the same in humans.
"It is a very straightforward procedure and we would expect to see a patient's health to change quite rapidly over a period of several weeks to a couple of months. In the mouse trials it was quite quick but in humans we don't know yet."
Heart disease affects more than a million people in the UK and kills around 120,000 people a year.
Heart disease patients in Britain could soon take part in a revolutionary stem cell surgery trial that could change the nature of heart surgery andHeart disease patients in Britain could soon take part in a revolutionary stem cell surgery trial that could change the nature of heart surgery and ultimately end the need for transplants.
By Caroline Gammell
Last Updated: 4:31PM GMT 09 Feb 2009
Heart disease affects more than a million people in the UK and kills around 120,000 people a year Photo: GETTY
It is believed that British patents could take the pioneering treatment, in which a patient's own cells are extracted and grown in a laboratory, in as little as a year.
Scientists have worked out a technique where human bone marrow cells are turned into human heart stem cells and then injected into the heart.
Laboratory grown heart stem cells were initially extensively tested on animals and trials on humans in Europe are due to start later this month.
Dr Jonathan Hill, a consultant cardiologist at London's King's College Hospital, is hoping to perform trials on British patients next year in conjunction with King's College London University.
"I have seen the results of the trials and they are very encouraging," he said. "We are negotiating to carry out human trials in the UK."
Professor Sian Harding, of Imperial College London, said being able to convert bone marrow stem cells into heart stem cell was a "big leap forward" in finding an "effective" treatment for heart failure.
"Placing heart stem cells into the heart to repair has a very good chance of working because the stem cells are the patient's own there are no problems with rejection," she said.
Prof Harding is working on turning embryo stem cells into heart stem cells but said her research was "still years away" from being used in patients.
Dr Duncan Dymond, a consultant cardiologist at London's Bart's Hospital, added: "Turning human stem cells into human heart cells is very exciting news.
"People with bad heart failure often lead a wretched life confined to home and unable to get out and about. If you are lucky you might get a heart transplant but many simply die before their time."
Last month, a method of cloning specialist versions of heart stem cells - known as "progenitor" cells - found in small quantities in human hearts received an international innovation award.
Last year, the Daily Telegraph disclosed how two heart attack patients in Britain had stem cells taken from bone marrow injected into their hearts in a bid to repair damaged tissue.
The most recent process was developed at the Mayo Clinic research centre in Minnesota.
As part of the planned human trials, 40 millilitres of bone marrow will be taken from a volunteer's hips.
The bone marrow is then grown in a laboratory into human heart stem cells using a special 'growth factor' protein.
The growth factor delivers a chemical signal to the stem cells to turn them from bone marrow cells into heart cells.
These cells are then infused into the patient's heart via a catheter in the groin and an improvement in a patient's condition is expected within a couple of weeks.
The development was disclosed during a major stem cell conference in New York and has been submitted to a leading medical journal.
Dr Christian Homsy of Cardio3 Biosciences - the company which is developing human heart stem cells - said: "Human heart stem cells repaired damaged areas of mice hearts in our trials. And we are convinced that we can do the same in humans.
"It is a very straightforward procedure and we would expect to see a patient's health to change quite rapidly over a period of several weeks to a couple of months. In the mouse trials it was quite quick but in humans we don't know yet."
Heart disease affects more than a million people in the UK and kills around 120,000 people a year.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Folic acid 'increases memory'
Folic acid 'increases memory'
By Nic Fleming, Medical Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:18AM GMT 19 Jan 2007
Folic acid supplements can significantly improve the memory and brain power of older people, according to a study to be published today.
Researchers found that men and post-menopausal women aged between 50 and 70 who took daily doses had the mental abilities of those almost five years their junior.
The supplements also helped maintain speed of information processing, reactions involving movement and overall brain power. These abilities decline with age, and their loss has been linked to a higher risk of dementia.
Folate, the natural form of synthetic folic acid, is found in broccoli, Brussels sprouts, peas, chickpeas, yeast extract, brown rice and fruit including oranges and bananas.
The research, published in the Lancet medical journal, was led by Dr Jane Durga, from the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands.
Dr Durga said: "Folic acid improves performance in tests that measure information processing speed and memory - domains known to decline with age.
"Trials similar to our own should now be repeated to provide greater insight into the clinical relevance of folic acid to people with mild cognitive impairment and dementia."
Folic acid supplements were also found to reduce levels of homocysteine, a blood chemical linked both to heart disease and dementia.
Age Concern has warned that increased consumption could have the side effect of masking deficiencies in the vitamin B12 - found in meat, eggs and dairy products - which could actually cause neurological damage.
"Further research is needed to reach a definitive answer on the benefits, or not, of folic acid," said the charity's director-general Gordon Lishman.
By Nic Fleming, Medical Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:18AM GMT 19 Jan 2007
Folic acid supplements can significantly improve the memory and brain power of older people, according to a study to be published today.
Researchers found that men and post-menopausal women aged between 50 and 70 who took daily doses had the mental abilities of those almost five years their junior.
The supplements also helped maintain speed of information processing, reactions involving movement and overall brain power. These abilities decline with age, and their loss has been linked to a higher risk of dementia.
Folate, the natural form of synthetic folic acid, is found in broccoli, Brussels sprouts, peas, chickpeas, yeast extract, brown rice and fruit including oranges and bananas.
The research, published in the Lancet medical journal, was led by Dr Jane Durga, from the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands.
Dr Durga said: "Folic acid improves performance in tests that measure information processing speed and memory - domains known to decline with age.
"Trials similar to our own should now be repeated to provide greater insight into the clinical relevance of folic acid to people with mild cognitive impairment and dementia."
Folic acid supplements were also found to reduce levels of homocysteine, a blood chemical linked both to heart disease and dementia.
Age Concern has warned that increased consumption could have the side effect of masking deficiencies in the vitamin B12 - found in meat, eggs and dairy products - which could actually cause neurological damage.
"Further research is needed to reach a definitive answer on the benefits, or not, of folic acid," said the charity's director-general Gordon Lishman.
Diabetes dulls the brain claim scientists
1/6/09 12:19 PM
Diabetes dulls the brain claim scientists - Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/4126051/Diabetes-dulls-the-brain-claim-scientists.html
Diabetes dulls the brain claim scientists
People with diabetes suffer a mental slowdown early in the disease, according to a new study.
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Last Updated: 3:57PM GMT 05 Jan 2009
Researchers found that healthy adults performed significantly better in planning, paying attention and speed of thought
than those suffering from diabetes.
But the differences were not significant in terms of memory, verbal fluency or reaction time.
As Britain's diabetic population continues to rise sharply, the findings mean that millions of people could be in danger of
mental slow down.
The team from the University of Alberta in Canada tracked 41 people with type 2 diabetes - also known as adult-onset
diabetes - and 424 without to make the finding.
The study, published in the journal Neuropsychology, found that the mental deterioration was no better in younger adults
with diabetes than in an older group, suggesting that the damage is done early in the disease and remains stable
thereafter.
Professor Roger Dixon, the report's co-author, said that people with serious cases of type 2 diabetes should be screened
for these cognitive effects to make sure they get the right medication and advice on diet or mental training.
"There could be some ways to compensate for these declines, at least early and with proper management," he said.
Obesity is one of the principal causes of type 2 diabetes, and has contributed to a rapid rise in the numbers of people with
the condition.
About a quarter of English adults are obese, and one official forecast suggests nine out of ten adults will be overweight or
obese by 2050.
Diabetes is linked to heart disease, stroke, amputations, kidney failure and blindness, and about one in 10 deaths is linked
to the disease. This is forecast to rise to one in eight next year.
Diabetes dulls the brain claim scientists - Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/4126051/Diabetes-dulls-the-brain-claim-scientists.html
Diabetes dulls the brain claim scientists
People with diabetes suffer a mental slowdown early in the disease, according to a new study.
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Last Updated: 3:57PM GMT 05 Jan 2009
Researchers found that healthy adults performed significantly better in planning, paying attention and speed of thought
than those suffering from diabetes.
But the differences were not significant in terms of memory, verbal fluency or reaction time.
As Britain's diabetic population continues to rise sharply, the findings mean that millions of people could be in danger of
mental slow down.
The team from the University of Alberta in Canada tracked 41 people with type 2 diabetes - also known as adult-onset
diabetes - and 424 without to make the finding.
The study, published in the journal Neuropsychology, found that the mental deterioration was no better in younger adults
with diabetes than in an older group, suggesting that the damage is done early in the disease and remains stable
thereafter.
Professor Roger Dixon, the report's co-author, said that people with serious cases of type 2 diabetes should be screened
for these cognitive effects to make sure they get the right medication and advice on diet or mental training.
"There could be some ways to compensate for these declines, at least early and with proper management," he said.
Obesity is one of the principal causes of type 2 diabetes, and has contributed to a rapid rise in the numbers of people with
the condition.
About a quarter of English adults are obese, and one official forecast suggests nine out of ten adults will be overweight or
obese by 2050.
Diabetes is linked to heart disease, stroke, amputations, kidney failure and blindness, and about one in 10 deaths is linked
to the disease. This is forecast to rise to one in eight next year.
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