Article As they do in many areas of medicine, stem cells hold great potential in treating injured spinal cords, but getting them where they need to go is a delicate undertaking. Scientists at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) are now reporting a breakthrough in this area, demonstrating a new injection technique in mice they say can deliver far larger doses of stem cells and avoid some of the dangers of current approaches. (excerpt)
Author: CureSteps
Jane Lebkowski, Asterias Biotherapeutics’ VP of R&D, spoke to CIRM’s governing Board about the company’s CIRM-funded clinical trial for spinal cord injury. Richard Lajara, the fourth participant in a previous trial, gives a patient’s perspective.
Researchers from Critical Analytics for Manufacturing Personalized-Medicine (CAMP), an interdisciplinary research group at Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, have been awarded Intra-CREATE grants from the National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore to help support research on retinal biometrics for glaucoma progression and neural cell implantation therapy for spinal cord injuries. The grants are part of the NRF’s initiative to bring together researchers from Campus for Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise (CREATE) partner institutions, in order to achieve greater impact from collaborative research efforts. (excerpt)
All the white matter in your brain is created by oligodendrocytes. For the 1st time researchers have caught on camera the way these cells hop, climb and crawl through the brain during development. Read more here: http://tiny.ucsf.edu/D4QAcD Director: Arezu Sarvestani Producer: Sara Shaffer PIO: Nicholas Weiler Special thanks to Stephen Fancy, PhD, DVM, an assistant professor of pediatrics and neurology in UCSF’s School of Medicine
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6695701/
Abstract
Regeneration of injuries occurring in the central nervous system, particularly spinal cord injuries (SCIs), is extremely difficult. The complex pathological events following a SCI often restrict regeneration of nervous tissue at the injury site and frequently lead to irreversible loss of motor and sensory function. Neural stem/progenitor cells (NSCs/NPCs) possess neuroregenerative and neuroprotective features, and transplantation of such cells into the site of damaged tissue is a promising stem cell-based therapy for SCI. However, NSC/NPCs have mostly been induced from embryonic stem cells or fetal tissue, leading to ethical concerns. The pioneering work of Yamanaka and colleagues gave rise to the technology to induce pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from somatic cells, overcoming these ethical issues. The advent of iPSCs technology has meant significant progress in the therapy of neurodegenerative disease and nerve tissue damage. A number of published studies have described the successful differentiation of NSCs/NPCs from iPSCs and their subsequent engraftment into SCI animal models, followed by functional recovery of injury. The aim of this present review is to summarize various iPSC- NPCs differentiation methods, SCI modelling, and the current status of possible iPSC- NPCs- based therapy of SCI.
https://neurogel-en-marche.org/en/
Twelve Tetraplegic and Paraplegic people performed a clinical trial in Kumming, China for spinal cord repair with activated fat. The results are exceptional and full of hope for the physically disabled. The Neurogel en Marche association presents the results of this project which took place in 2019 followed by one year of intensive rehabilitation. We call on all those who could help us to publicize this information to contact us. If you are interested come follow us on social networks You will find all our future steps.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3130417/
ABSTRACT
Somatic cells have been reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells by introducing a combination of several transcription factors, such as Oct3/4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc. Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from a patient’s somatic cells could be a useful source for drug discovery and cell transplantation therapies. However, most human iPS cells are made by viral vectors, such as retrovirus and lentivirus, which integrate the reprogramming factors into the host genomes and may increase the risk of tumour formation. Several non-integration methods have been reported to overcome the safety concern associated with the generation of iPS cells, such as transient expression of the reprogramming factors using adenovirus vectors or plasmids, and direct delivery of reprogramming proteins. Although these transient expression methods could avoid genomic alteration of iPS cells, they are inefficient. Several studies of gene expression, epigenetic modification and differentiation revealed the insufficient reprogramming of iPS cells, thus suggesting the need for improvement of the reprogramming procedure not only in quantity but also in quality. This report will summarize the current knowledge of iPS generation and discuss future reprogramming methods for medical application.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5243807/
Abstract
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a common cause of mortality and neurological morbidity. Although progress had been made in the last decades in medical, surgical, and rehabilitation treatments for SCI, the outcomes of these approaches are not yet ideal. The use of cell transplantation as a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of SCI is very promising. Cell therapies for the treatment of SCI are limited by several translational road blocks, including ethical concerns in relation to cell sources. The use of iPSCs is particularly attractive, given that they provide an autologous cell source and avoid the ethical and moral considerations of other stem cell sources. In addition, different cell types, that are applicable to SCI, can be created from iPSCs. Common cell sources used for reprogramming are skin fibroblasts, keratinocytes, melanocytes, CD34+ cells, cord blood cells and adipose stem cells. Different cell types have different genetic and epigenetic considerations that affect their reprogramming efficiencies. Furthermore, in SCI the iPSCs can be differentiated to neural precursor cells, neural crest cells, neurons, oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, and even mesenchymal stromal cells. These can produce functional recovery by replacing lost cells and/or modulating the lesion microenvironment.