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Embryonic Stem Cell Research Yields Major Success

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Andy Battaglia:
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


--- Quote ---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.

--- End quote ---

Zaini:
Sounds Promising !!!  :yes

ZAINI.

KHALIFA:
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  :huh?  :dunno 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  :biggrin
   
                                      khalifa
                                 state of kuwait

Andy Battaglia:
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.  :scratch

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

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

Regards

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