Embryonic Stem Cell Research Yields Major Success

I came across this tonight and think this will have major implications for treating many diseases and disorders, including thalassemia. The article speaks mainly of the ability to grow new blood vessels in damaged tissue, but the hemangioblasts mentioned in the article are also the precursor of blood cells. This, of course, would be a huge development, if red blood cells could be grown within the body. The potential for repairing iron damage to organs, especially the heart, by restoring normal blood flow is also great. It's time that embryonic stem cell research is allowed the funding needed to fulfill its promise.

From http://www.advancedcell.com/press-release/precursor-cells-generated-from-human-embryonic-stem-cells-show-ability-to-repair-vascular-damage-in-animals

Precursor Cells Generated From Human Embryonic Stem Cells Show Ability to Repair Vascular Damage in Animals
New, scalable population of hemangioblast cells halves the death rate following heart attack and repairs ischemic limbs and damaged vasculature.

Worcester, MA, May 7, 2007 – Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (OTCBB:ACTC – News) reported for the first time that hemangioblast precursor cells derived from human embryonic stem (hES) cells can be used to achieve vascular repair. The research, which appears today online (ahead of print) in the journal Nature Methods, by Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) and its collaborators, describes an efficient method for generating large numbers of bipotential progenitors—known as hemangioblasts—from hES cells that are capable of differentiating into blood vessels, as well as into all blood and immune cell lineages.

“The ability to repair vascular damage using these cells could have a profound impact on a large number of diseases that are major human afflictions,” said Robert Lanza, M.D., Vice President of Research & Scientific Development at ACT, and senior author of the study. “Our results suggest the possibility of using nature’s early cellular developmental components to restore vascularization and function in patients with vascular disease. An injection of these cells may be able to prevent a patient from having a leg amputated or from dying after a heart attack.”

“We have developed for the first time a simple and highly scalable source of human hemangioblasts,” stated Shi-Jiang Lu, Ph.D., Director of Differentiation at ACT and first author of the paper. “These proprietary cells represent a new and distinctly different population of cells that can be differentiated into vascular structures and multiple hematopoietic cell types. The elimination of serum and other animal components from the system, as well as the ability to generate an unlimited supply of these cells, will be important for future preclinical and human studies.”

When the cells were injected into animals that had damage to their retina due to diabetes or ischemia-reperfusion injury (lack of adequate blood flow) of the retina, the cells homed to the site of injury and showed robust reparative function of the entire damaged vasculature within 24-48 hours. The cells showed a similar regenerative capacity in animal models of both myocardial infarction (50% reduction in mortality rate) and hind limb ischemia, with restoration of blood flow to near normal levels.

“These cells were able to generate functional blood vessels in the presence of severe tissue injury, as well as in chronic disease states,” says Maria Grant, M.D., Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Florida, and an author on the paper. “These cells have a robust vascular reparative ability under what is typically considered very adverse growth conditions making them potentially ideal for treatment of diabetic vascular complications where profound tissue compromise exists and healing is typically severely compromised.”

“While the cells in this study were tested in animal models, we believe this breakthrough has the potential to benefit many Americans suffering from vascular disease,” stated William M. Caldwell, IV, Chairman and CEO of Advanced Cell Technology. “ACT is committed to moving this technology from the laboratory into the clinic. We plan on filing an Investigational New Drug Application with the Food and Drug Administration for the first clinical application of these cells by the end of next year.”

The researchers of the paper from Advanced Cell Technology collaborated with scientists from the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), New York, New York. The paper’s other authors are Qiang Feng of ACT, Sergio Caballero of the University of Florida, and Yu Chen and Malcolm A.S. Moore, DPhil, of MSKCC.

Sounds Promising !!! 

ZAINI.

HI Andy
           what you said and what i read it's sound really good  BUT what a bout the man who staying in the white house   ? what do you think he will do  ?  i think we came back to the same descusion that happened before in your message a bout the research of embryo ..  Any way i hope the white house man will agree 
   
                                      khalifa
                                 state of kuwait

What Mr Bush thinks  about anything is quickly becoming irrelevant. As we see here, this research is being done by a private company independent of government financing. Bush will be gone after 2008 and hopefully we can get a president who can think forward...or think at all in this case. 

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/06/07/congress.stemcells.ap/index.html

Another mistake by Mr. Bush. Please see the link above.

Regards

The president made his position clear weeks ago when he said the legislation "crosses a moral line that I and many others find troubling."

We are talking about embryos that are already queud in for being wasted, then what does he calls what he is doing in Iraq! They are living breathing people!

Pandering politicians prevent people's progress.

The US spends hundreds of billions of dollars every year on the military. Tens of thousands of people are dying because of a war that those politicians created. The US defense budget for 2007 is over $500 billion. Can we at least look at the idea of shifting some of that money into projects that would keep people alive instead of killing them? Imagine what only 10% of that money could do to advance medical research and treatments.

More news on advancements in stem cell technology as it relates to creating red blood cells.

http://www.advancedcell.com/press-release/advanced-cell-technologys-study-published-in-leading-hematology-journal

Advanced Cell Technologys Study Published in Leading Hematology Journal
Thursday December 4, 7:57 am ET

WORCESTER, Mass.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (OTCBB: ACTC.PK – News), announced today that their study investigating the feasibility of producing functional, oxygen-carrying red blood cells (RBCs) from mature human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) has been formally published in the print version of the prestigious medical journal Blood – the leading publication in the field of hematology. The study,which was previously only available in the online edition of the Journal, includes commentary from Dr. Eric Bouhassira of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, a leading researcher in the field of hematology.
“This is a major milestone for embryonic stem cell development,” said William Caldwell, CEO and Chairman of ACTC. “These cells were originally derived from hESC’s that were developed using ACT’s single blastomere technique. The company was the first to derive hemangioblast from hESC’s, a result which has yet to be replicated outside of the ACT laboratories. The study shows that ACT can produce these cells in quantity, which as Dr. Bouhassira states in his commentary, is a critical step towards being able to produce a donor-less source of blood for transfusion in the future.”

The study also demonstrated that the process produces viable RBCs with the functional properties of their naturally occurring counterparts, demonstrating that the created cells can be enucleated in vitro. “We show that up to 65% of the blood cells underwent multiple maturation events that resulted in the extrusion of the nucleus,” stated Shi-Jiang Lu, Ph.D., Director of Differentiation for Allied Cell Technology, the Company’s recently announced joint venture with CHA Biotech Co. Ltd. and first author of the paper. “They formed enucleated erythrocytes with a diameter of 6-8 μm, which is similar to normal red blood cells. We also showed that the cells could express adult β-globin and respond normally to biochemical changes.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/british-scientists-to-create-synthetic-blood-1651715.html

British scientists to create 'synthetic' blood
Human embryos will be used to make an unlimited supply for infection-free transfusions

By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Monday, 23 March 2009SHAREPRINT ARTICLE EMAIL ARTICLE TEXT SIZE NORMALLARGEEXTRA LARGE
Scientists in Britain plan to become the first in the world to produce unlimited amounts of synthetic human blood from embryonic stem cells for emergency infection-free transfusions.

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Steve Connor: A scientific dream for more than half a century
A major research project is to be announced this week that will culminate in three years with the first transfusions into human volunteers of "synthetic" blood made from the stem cells of spare IVF embryos. It could help to save the lives of anyone from victims of traffic accidents to soldiers on a battlefield by revolutionising the vital blood transfusion services, which have to rely on a network of human donors to provide a constant supply of fresh blood.

The multimillion-pound deal involving NHS Blood and Transplant, the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service and the Wellcome Trust, the world's biggest medical research charity, means Britain will take centre stage in the global race to develop blood made from embryonic stem cells. The researchers will test human embryos left over from IVF treatment to find those that are genetically programmed to develop into the "O-negative" blood group, which is the universal donor group whose blood can be transfused into anyone without fear of tissue rejection.

This blood group is relatively rare, applicable to about 7 per cent of the population, but it could be produced in unlimited quantities from embryonic stem cells because of their ability to multiply indefinitely in the laboratory.

The aim is to stimulate embryonic stem cells to develop into mature, oxygen-carrying red blood cells for emergency transfusions. Such blood would have the benefit of not being at risk of being infected with viruses such as HIV and hepatitis, or the human form of "mad cow" disease. The military in particular needs a constant supply of fresh, universal donor blood for battlefield situations when normal supplies from donors can quickly run out.

But developing blood made from the cells of spare IVF embryos will raise difficult ethical issues for people not happy with the idea of destroying embryos to create stem cells. It also raises the intriguing philosophical question of whether the synthetic blood will have come from someone who never existed. In theory, just one embryo could meet the nation's needs.

The Wellcome Trust is believed to have promised £3m towards the cost of the project, with further funding coming from the blood transfusion services of Scotland, and England and Wales. The Irish government is also understood to be involved. A spokesman for the Wellcome Trust said complicated legal issues were still being ironed out between all the parties involved but that an announcement is likely to be made in the coming week.

The project will be led by Professor Marc Turner, of Edinburgh University, the director of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service. Professor Turner has been involved in studies investigating how to ensure donated blood is free of the infectious agent behind variant CJD, the human form of "mad cow" disease. Several vCJD patients are thought to have contracted the disease by blood transfusions.

Professor Turner was unavailable for comment but a spokeswoman for the National Blood Service for England and North Wales confirmed that negotiations on the joint research project were at an advanced stage and that legal, rather than scientific, issues were holding up the announcement.

The multi-centre collaboration is also understood to involve scientists at the Medical Research Council's Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and Roslin Cells, a spin-off company that has emerged out of the Roslin Institute, where Dolly the sheep was cloned in 1996.

Scientists in other countries, notably Sweden, France and Australia, are also known to be working on the development of synthetic blood from embryonic stem cells. And last year, a team from a US biotechnology company, Advanced Cell Technology, announced that it has been able to produce billions of functioning red blood cells from embryonic stem cells. But the US work had been held up because of funding problems dating back to the ban on embryonic stem cell work under the Bush administration. President Barack Obama has since reversed that policy.

In Britain, the project was held up because of the difficulty of finding funding for "translational" research that attempts to take scientific studies in the laboratory into the earliest stages of commercial development. This problem has now been overcome.

Although, as far as I know, there is no current research into a cure for thalassemia using stem cells, there is much research into using stem cells to create red blood cells. This would completely eliminate antibody reactions, which are a major cause of problems in thalassemics, leading to more frequent transfusions and iron overload. These are major breakthroughs and the lifting of the ban on funding of embryonic stem cell research in the US will help to speed up this research.

Thanks Andy,

This is great to see.  I wish that there were studies relating to a cure for thal - but this research is very applicable to thals as well.  Antibody's have posed so much trouble for us - I hope that this research will help us and that it will help others avoid some of the problems that we have encountered.    Also, little A is O negative and some days it is a nightmare finding a donor who is O neg and one that is matched for every antigen. 

I am so glad that Obama is encouraing this type of research and that he encourages investment in education, development and research.  Bill Gates also says that a steps toward a healthier economy should would include medical research and gene therapy (I was so happy to hear him say that!!). 

Thanks again Andy,

Sharmin

Andy,

I remember talks about synthetic blood, or some type of blood product that would survive and function in the body for prolonged periods of time.  Has anyone heard any updates on that research?


Sharmin

Sharmin, do you mean plastic blood that was invented to be used in wars ??

manal

I am not too sure, Manal.  I think that we talked about it on this site at an earlier time.

Sharmin

There have been serious problems found with the synthetic artificial blood substitute. This product is intended for use where there has been a major blood loss, until real blood can be accessed. However, things have not gone well.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/04/blood.html

April 29, 2008

• Health News
Investigators working at the National Institutes of Health have concluded that artificial blood is too risky for further testing, because patients who receive it have a 30 percent increased chance of dying.

While the idea of a blood substitute that doesn't need refrigeration or cross-matching and has a long shelf life would be an exciting scientific advance, the study concludes these products significantly increase the risk of heart attacks and death.

The authors also raise serious questions about the role of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in continuing to allow human trials of these products, despite evidence from past clinical trials that found patients given these hemoglobin-based blood substitutes face a 30 percent greater risk of death and a 171 percent increased risk of heart attack than those treated conventionally.

This product would have very little value for thals even if it was safe, as it lasts a very short period. Creating blood using stem cells would have a much greater implication for thals.

Perhaps I was talking about this - adding NO to donated blood so that it will last longer:

http://www.thalassemiapatientsandfriends.com/index.php?topic=1261.0;highlight=transfusion+last+longer

I wonder if NO inducers like watermelon, and L-carnitine taken during tx would have some benefit.  Although, it seems that much of the NO is lost during storage - so it should be added at the time of collection & storage 

Sharmin