STEM CELLS FIX HEART 5 YEARS AGO

2006

Case Study: James Eilert, 34 years old, presents with a “widowmaker” [100 % blockage of the left ascending coronary artery]. His ejection fraction (EF – volume of blood his heart pumps out) was between 20 and 25 percent (55 is normal). His cardiologist told him he has about 5 years left to live.  James left the country in order to receive Adult Stem Cell treatment.

1 1/2 weeks after treatment – Echocardiogram revealed that his completely dead apex was beating again.

6 months after treatment – Sidewalls of heart beat normally.  Septum went from 100% damage to 30% damage. Cardiologist confirms James’ heart is 50 percent more elastic than the year before Repair Stem Cell therapy.

6 – 9 months after treatment – James’ total dead heart tissue is down to about 10%.  EF is up to 50%!

4 years later – James’ heart and health continue to improve. He continues to push himself and his limits.  He runs regularly, works 7 days a week and can bike 20 miles .

Summation:

James went from Class III congestive heart failure to Class I with an ejection fraction (EF) increase from ~20-25% to his current EF of 50%.  His doctors have lifted all restrictions and limitations on his physical activities.

James is only one of many adult stem cell treatment success stories…

November 17, 2011 Update:

A letter from James.  How is he doing today?

“its amazing how fast reality can change, the differences that you see in others that they dont notice themselves. the changes in attitudes and perceptions that the “new” was never in doubt and is accepted as if it were always true. the new studies showing the truth about adult stem cell heart treatments the last few months have proven that we the few pioneers that have made huge financial sacrifices to try and save our lives were not crazy, stupid or otherwise deluded!

it was a risk and for the last four years despite proving over and over by running uphill on so many treadmills my improvments were basically ignored by cardiologists, general practitioners, and even my own wife and stepdaughters.

that i am happy to say has changed!!!!

i went to see my doctor yesterday, he told me to start heavy weight training and interval running, to help me lose weight better. what was differnet? nobody has told me to do that since my heart attack, there was no mention of taking it easy, in fact before i was told to only do light weights and take it easy, watch my heart rate, dont push past 150bpm ever.

it was like i never even had a heart attack.

i asked in disbelief if i should watch my heart rate, keep it a safe zone. the answer “no, stick to 85 to 90 percent and youll be fine, your exercise scores and echos show you can handle it”

vindication, no longer an unexplained anamoly, just a patient that responded better than average to a new treatment – like it was always true in thier minds, never a doubt.

what a feeling!! it has taken ten years to go from the “fringe” to the mainstream - i look forward to getting treatments here in america, and i’m so happy i took the risk that now ensures i will be alive to reap the benifits when it becomes available here!

have a good day david – it nice to be right once in a while!
jim eilert

Congratulations as always Jim!  On your heart recovery success and on having the courage to be a pioneer with an adult stem cell treatment that was cutting edge around the world 5 years ago and is still barely know today in the USA! – David

ADULT STEM CELLS AND RADIATION?

The question of radiation during adult stem cell treatments came up today:

N says: “Touting adult stem cells as the way to salvation, even with donor human hematopoietic stem cells (hHESCs) (adult stem cells), used in the treatment of leukemia patients, a patient must undergo a radiation treatment to suppress their immune system prior to receiving the donor hHESCs. StemCellBlogger commented on the need for immunosuppression when using hESCs in clinical translational therapy. Given that a patient must receive a near lethal dose of radiation, knocking out their immune system BEFORE receiving hHESCs from a registered DONOR, flies in the face of reason when compared to the immunosuppression required for hESC infusion. A patient receivng either a liver, kidney, pancreas or dual kidney pancreas organ transplant receives immunosuppression in the form of Campath as a prophylactic prior to the transplant and then must either receive Prograf, Cyclosporin, or Sirolimus (depending on the tissue transplanted) in order to suppress the patients immune system, allowing the graft to survive while avoiding graft-vs-host rejection. If we are going to talk about translational therapies, then let’s get into the meat and stop chewing the fat.

My response: I’m not talking about bone marrow transplants for leukemia patients, I’m talking about adult stem cell treatments used in regenerative medicine.  For example, CBS who have called adult stem cells snake oil for years just did a very positive piece on a recent heart trial:

CBS VIDEO on Adult Stem Cell Success with Heart Disease

CBS ARTICLE on Adult Stem Cell Success with Heart Disease

“This study is still in progress. 16 patients were assigned to the treatment group and seven to the control group; no CSC-related adverse effects were reported. In 14 CSC-treated patients who were analysed, LVEF increased from 30·3% (SE 1·9) before CSC infusion to 38·5% (2·8) at 4 months after infusion (p=0·001). By contrast, in seven control patients, during the corresponding time interval, LVEF did not change (30·1% [2·4] at 4 months after CABG vs 30·2% [2·5] at 8 months after CABG). Importantly, the salubrious effects of CSCs were even more pronounced at 1 year in eight patients (eg, LVEF increased by 12·3 ejection fraction units [2·1] vs baseline, p=0·0007). In the seven treated patients in whom cardiac MRI could be done, infarct size decreased from 32·6 g (6·3) by 7·8 g (1·7; 24%) at 4 months (p=0·004) and 9·8 g (3·5; 30%) at 1 year (p=0·04).”

via Clinical Trial in The Lancet CBS Based Their Reporting On

While the study is still in prgress and the results are preliminary, I find it extremely ironic that CBS uses words like “breakthrough” and “first ever” and N acts as if he doesn’t know about the 443 clinical trials at clinicaltrials.gov with the keywords “stem cell” and “cardiac?,” over 2,000 completed Adult stem cell trials, thousands of patients treated safely and effectively around the world and over 5,170 peer reviewed published studies with the keywords “adult stem cell” and “cardiac?”

The results are great the history is extensive and no radiation is needed.In fact, even MS which used to need radiation to treat with adult stem cells no longer needs radiation.

EMBRYONICS’ BLEAK FUTURE AND BOTCHED PAST

EMBRYONICS’ BLEAK FUTURE AND BOTCHED PAST

I just received a comment from MB and despite Geron and the rest of the world abandoning embryonic stem cells for adult, he is still optimistic about the future of embryonic stem cells (with a little plug snuck in for a company he probably owns stock in).

My original comment:

embryonic research has been 100% fruitless (in regard to generating
treatments) for well-funded and government supported scientists around the world for the last 13 years.  Embryonic stem cells are the only significant obstacles to embryonic stem cell treatments.  Adult stem cells on the other hand have successfully treated 10s of thousands over the past decade.

MB’s response:

hESCs (human embryonic stem cells) have only been around for 13 years compared to adult stem cells 30+ years…. give it some time… human embryonic stem cells (especially ACT’s embryo SAFE blastomere-derived) will be THE GOLD standard   watch and SEEE the difference…soon..

My response:

MB – Not even close.   Embryonic stem cells have been around for way longer than since James Thompson and friends derived the first human embryonic stem cell line at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1998.

To clarify:

“Research in the human stem cell field grew out of findings by Canadian scientists Ernest A. McCulloch and James E. Till in the 1960s.”

1963: Becker AJ, McCulloch EA, Till JE (1963). “Cytological demonstration of the clonal nature of spleen colonies derived from transplanted mouse marrow cells”. Nature 197: 452-4. PMID 13970094.

1963: Siminovitch L, McCulloch EA, Till JE (1963). “The distribution of colony-forming cells among spleen colonies”. Journal of Cellular and Comparative Physiology 62: 327-36. PMID 14086156.

1978: Stem cells were discovered in human cord blood

1981: First in vitro stem cell line developed from mice

1981 – Mouse embryonic stem cells are derived from the inner cell mass

That’s 30 years ago!

Evans, M.J. & Kaufman, M. Establishment in culture of pluripotential stem cells from mouse embryos. Nature 292, 151–156 (1981).

1981 – Martin, G.R. Isolation of a pluripotent cell line from early mouse embryos cultured in medium conditioned by teratocarcinoma stem cells. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA 78, 7634–7638 (1981).

1984 – Andrews, P.W. et al. Pluripotent embryonal carcinoma clones derived from the human teratocarcinoma cell line Tera-2. Lab. Invest. 50, 147–162 (1984).

Blastomeres isolated from the ICM of mammalian embryos and grown in culture are known as embryonic stem (ES) cells. These pluripotent cells, when grown in a carefully coordinated media, can give rise to all three germ layers (ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm) of the adult body.

1986: Robertson, Elizabeth , et al. Germ-line transmission of genes introduced into cultured pluripotential cells by retroviral vector. Nature 323, 445 – 448 (02 October 1986)

1988: Embryonic stem cell lines created from a hamster

1995: First embryonic stem cell line derived from a primate

1995: Thomson, J.A. et al. Isolation of a primate embryonic stem cell line. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92, 7844–7844 (1995).

And then we get to what MB considers the “discovery of embryonic stem cells”:

1998 – James Thomson and coworkers derive the first human embryonic stem cell line at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Not to worry, though MB.  Adult stem cells HAVE been used in bone marrow transplants for over 40 years so they still have the upper hand in “time we’ve worked with them.”  Then again, it was only in 1998 that adult stem cells were considered for treating other illnesses.

Just out of curiosity, besides

“embryonic stem cells have proven 100% fruitless (in regard to generating treatments) for well-funded and government supported scientists around the world for the last 13 years,”

how do you plan on addressing these other embryonic stem cell issues to name a few?

1. they create cysts and tumors that can develop into cancer at the site of the injection and injury
2. rejection issues require immunosuppressive drugs for the ill patient
3. embryonic stem cells (and induced pluripotent stem cells) carry the genetic anomalies of the donor
4. they have to date treated zero diseases successfully
5. scientists probably need to cure cancer first to use them

MIRROR THE RESULTS

But if MB can mirror the results of  the success rate of adult stem cell treatments (~65% of patients have significant improvement in their incurable, chronic or terminal illnesses) and do so without the side effects alluded to above (adult stem cells have virtually zero side effects except for sometimes additionally fixing more than the intended organ/illness) then I would love to hear about it!

CBS REPORTS: ADULT STEM CELL TREATMENTS WORK!

The king is dead, long live the king!

Embryonic stem cells are dead, long live Adult stem cells!

In early 2009 I wrote an article called “SCREW THE EMBRYOS, THEY’RE IRRELEVANT!“

ANTHONY HOPKINS SAYS: "SCREW THE EMBRYOS!" (Legends of the Fall) :p

“…since few people can afford to travel outside the country for adult stem cell treatments, ESC-crazed America, the Bangladesh of stem cells, with its focus on “treatment useless” research, and 4-8 years behind the rest of the world (in 2009) on available adult stem cell treatments, has become exactly that, a death row prison cell for those suffering from so-called untreatable diseases.”

In “SCREW THE EMBRYOS”, I explained why Embryonic stem cells will not treat humans for decades.  I explained how embryonic research has been 100% fruitless (in regard to generating treatments) for well-funded and government supported scientists around the world for the last 13 years. I explained how Adult stem cells have been treating patients outside the USA for years and I shared what a tragic, terrible waste of life it is that Americans don’t know there are safe and effective treatment options for over 100 incurable diseases.

With Embryonic stem cell treatment research now an obvious waste of time, money and resources, where should the desperate patient with chronic or incurable disease turn?  Adult Stem Cells

Allow me to introduce you to Adult Stem Cells.

STEM CELLS 101 – short

ADULT STEM CELL = ASC

• SOURCE/DERIVED FROM – comes from blood, umbilical cords, bone marrow, placenta fat tissue, muscle, nasal neurological, breast milk, menstruation, dental pulp, and many more
• PURPOSE IN BODY – they are the body’s natural healing cells
• OBSTACLES+SIDE EFFECTS – ~zero problems (virtually zero side effects)
• TREATMENT HISTORY – used in bone marrow transplants to treat cancer for 40 years
• TREATMENT HISTORY – can currently treat 130+ diseases safely and effectively (CP, MS, Autism, Diabetes, CHF, PAD, etc)

To see if your condition can be treated with Adult stem cells, please fill out this form: http://bit.ly/PATIENTQUESTIONNAIRE

CBS has been against Adult Stem Cells for years.  They repeatedly referred to the doctors and scientists involved in adult stem cell treatments as quacks, crooks, con-men and scam artists.  They refer to adult stem cell treatments as snake oil despite a record of safety and efficacy going back to 2002! At the same time, CBS has been promoting the ‘huge potential of embryonic stem cell treatments.’  I take no pleasure in the irony that the CBS “eye” has been completely blind to the benefits of Adult stem cells for years while the rest of the world touted their benefits and the rest of the world’s patients recovered from terminal, chronic and incurable illnesses while American patients had zero options for recovery.

For a history of stem cell treatments of heart disease going back to 2002 – http://repairstemcell.wordpress.com/heart-disease-treatment/

All of this has now changed.  CBS has done a 180 degree flip and are now advocates for the benefits of Adult stem cells!

CBS VIDEO on Adult Stem Cell Success with Heart Disease

CBS ARTICLE on Adult Stem Cell Success with Heart Disease

Clinical Trial in The Lancet CBS Based Their Reporting On

Irony number 2 is that CBS uses words like “breakthrough” and “first ever.”

Do you know there are 443 clinical trials at clinicaltrials.gov with the keywords “stem cell” and “cardiac?”  There is not a single one which is a completed Embryonic stem cell trial.  Point of fact, there is not a single completed Embryonic stem cell trial for any disease anywhere. There are over 2,000 completed Adult stem cell trials.

Do you know there are 5,170 peer reviewed published studies with the keywords “adult stem cell” and “cardiac?”

MAJOR WOW FACTOR!

With the death of Embryonic stem cell treatments and the RE-discovery of Adult stem cell treatments, don’t you owe it to yourself to see if Adult stem cells can help you?

To see if your condition can be treated with Adult stem cells,

please fill out this form: http://bit.ly/PATIENTQUESTIONNAIRE

A HISTORY OF THE GERON EMBRYONIC STEM CELL FIASCO

• ·         EMBRYONIC STEM CELL STUDIES FRONT PAGE NEWS AS BETTER ADULT STUDIES IGNORED
• ·         GERON’S EMBRYONIC “WASTE OF TIME” CONTINUES…
• ·         FIRST PATIENT TO GET STEM CELL THERAPY COMES FORWARD – LIES AND MISDIRECTION
• ·         FDA OKS FIRST EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH TRIAL ON HUMANS, DESPITE CONCERNS
• ·         CELLULAR DYNAMICS’ STEM CELLS NAMED TO TOP 10 EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES LIST – JSONLINE
• ·         GERON ZOMBIE ARTICLES RISE FROM THE DEAD
• ·         THE EMBRYONIC STEM CELL HOAX: A HISTORY OF THE GERON SCANDAL
• ·         GERON RULED BY POLITICAL AGENDA
• ·         AUSTRALIAN LIES ABOUT STEM CELL TREATMENTS LEAVE BAD TASTE
• ·         GERON’S STEM CELL TRIAL
• ·         SPINAL CORD INJURY + STEM CELLS – A BRIEF HISTORY OF TREATMENT
• ·         GERON CLONE? SEC SAYS CELLCYTE GENETICS LIED TO INFLATE STOCK PRICE
• ·         THE LATEST STORIES FROM “ADULT STEM CELL AWARENESS”
• ·         HARD TO TREAT DISEASES HTDS.PK STEM CELLS + REGENERATIVE MEDICINE
• ·         GERON GIVES REASON FOR FDA HOLD; SHARES RISE
• ·         BRAINSTORM (BCLI) – BONE MARROW STEM CELL CO. PROFILE RELEASED
• ·         GERON SAYS: PRODUCT PRODUCED CYSTS
• ·         STEM CELL STOCK INDEX
• ·         ALL EYES ON THE STEM CELL INDEX AHEAD OF STUDY RESULTS
• ·         WHO SAYS EMBRYONIC TREATMENTS CAN’T HAPPEN?
• ·         GERON EMBRYONIC TRIAL HITS THE WALL
• ·         A GRIM FAIRY TALE – AMERICA’S DOOMED LOVE AFFAIR WITH EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH – PART 6 – FOLLOW THE MONEY, NOT THE SCIENCE
• ·         NEWS ANALYSIS – RETHINK STEM CELLS? SCIENCE ALREADY HAS – NYTIMES.COM
• ·         OBAMA ROCKS UP STEM CELL STOCKS (ASTM, CYTX, GERN, NBS, OSIR, STEM, KOOL) : BIOHEALTH INVESTOR – BIOTECH AND MEDICAL BUSINESS BLOG
• ·         STEM CELLS: POLITICS, PROCESSES AND POTENTIAL : NEAPOLITAN : NAPLES DAILY NEWS
• ·         GERON’S STEM-CELL RESEARCH HYPE SOAKS INVESTORS
• ·         STEM CELL SCIENTISTS EXPECTING MORE FEDERAL FUNDING

Embryonic stem cell treatment are now an unrealized potential.

Adult stem cell treatments are a realized potential.

To see if your condition can be treated with Adult stem cells, please fill out this form: http://bit.ly/PATIENTQUESTIONNAIRE

GERON GIVES UP on EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS!

THE

WAR

IS

OVER!!

If stem cell treatments were a boxing match, Embryonic stem cell treatments would be the 500 lb Gorilla and Adult stem cell treatments would be the small, unknown underdog.   Today, that Gorilla threw in the towel!

Despite the huge disparity in their media coverage, with positive Embryonic stem cell potential articles outnumbering all Adult stem cell articles by 1,000 to one, only Adult stem cells have a proven history of safety and efficacy, only Adult stem cell treatments are available today.  Click here to see if your condition can be treated with Adult stem cells:

While Geron and the US media, big Pharma, the AMA and the FDA have all given Embryonic stem cell their full throated support, the number of patients helped with adult stem cells is in the 10s of thousands while the number of patients helped by Embryonic stem cells in zero.

If Embryonic treatments were a horse race, Geron would be the strongest horse in the field.  Geron would be the horse who was 9/10 of the way around the track with all other competitors still milling about in the starting blocks.  So what would make that horse stop dead in his tracks, fall flat on his face and walk away from the race?

What does it mean for the other Embryonic focused companies when the front runner pulls out of the race?

What would cause the leading Embryonic stem cell Pharmaceutical company with multiple Embryonic stem cell products in development to end all of their Embryonic stem cell programs? 

Product		Product Description		Application		Development Stage
GRNOPC1		Oligodendrocyte Progenitor Cells		Spinal Cord Injury		Phase I Clinical Trial
GRNCM1		Cardiomyocytes		Heart Disease		Preclinical
GRNIC1		Islets		Type 1 Diabetes		Research
GRNCHND1		Chondrocytes		Osteoarthritis		Research
		Hepatocytes		ADME Drug Screening		Research
GRNVAC2		Mature Dendritic Cells		Cancer Immunotherapy		Product Research
		Immature Dendritic Cells		Immune Rejection		Research
		Osteoblasts		Osteoporosis		Research

via Geron.com

Perhaps their clinical trial patients developed cysts and tumors as do all Embryonic stem cell patients.  Perhaps Geron decided to end their trials before these tumors and cysts turned into cancer so they could still say their product “has been well tolerated with no serious adverse events.”

Perhaps Geron couldn’t figure out how to address the need for immunosuppressive drugs required to implant a human with ALL Embryonic stem cells when there are many Adult stem cells that have no rejection issues.

Perhaps Geron couldn’t determine how to deal with Embryonic stem cells carrying the genetic abnormalities and maladies of the donor.

Or perhaps they read some of the quotes from my articles going back to March of 2009:

• To date, ESC research has been 100% fruitless (in regard to generating treatments) for well-funded + government supported scientists around the world for the last 11 years.
• Dr James Thomson, father of ESC research said: “…[ESC] are not being used in any clinical applications yet, while alternatives such as adult stem cells figure in scores of therapies.”
• Ian Wilmut, who led the team that cloned Dolly the sheep, abandoned his license to attempt human cloning, saying that the researchers “may have achieved what no politician could: an end to the [ESC] debate.”
• Dr. Bernadine Healy, former director of the NIH in U.S. News & World Report: “…[ESC], once thought to hold the cure for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and diabetes, are obsolete….. In fact, adult stem cells, which occur in small quantities in organs throughout the body for natural growth and repair, have become stars despite great skepticism early on.

Or maybe they reviewed the timeline for Embryonic stem cell success and realized they couldn’t afford 50 YEARS OF RESEARCH!

Dr. Colin McGuckin, a noted UK embryonic research leader at Newcastle U. before departing for more useful RSC research in France announced:

• “For me, the unnecessary row over stem cells has obscured the very real issue that patients are waiting to be treated…The best estimates of the embryonic scientists in our own university in Newcastle is that embryonic stem cells may not be able to help people this side of 50 years. That’s my lifetime. And that’s worrying. We can’t wait that long.”

via Screw The Embryos, They’re Irrelevant!

I do have to applaud their spin department.  It is a brilliant move to take the news story

“GERON GIVES UP ON EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS”

and spin it into

“GERON PUTS 100% FOCUS INTO CURING CANCER.” 

Even so, we are not fooled.  The red headed step child in the family always knows when they are neglected. 

They also published their press release at 4:05 Eastern so the regular stock market was closed and couldn’t react to the news. Unfortunately for them, their stock dropped over 20% in after hours trading.

Whatever the reason for Geron abandoning Embryonic stem cells, we can now finally exalt that THE WAR IS OVER and get on with Adult Stem Cell Treatments, the only stem cells to cure a human patient.

ADULT STEM CELL = ASC

• SOURCE/DERIVED FROM•comes from blood, umbilical cords, bone marrow, placenta fat tissue, muscle, nasal neurological, breast milk, menstruation, dental pulp, and many more
• PURPOSE IN BODY•they are the body’s natural healing cells
• OBSTACLES+SIDE EFFECTS•~zero problems (virtually zero side effects)
• TREATMENT HISTORY•used in bone marrow transplants to treat cancer for 40 years
• TREATMENT HISTORY•can currently treat 130+ diseases safely and effectively (CP, MS, Autism, Diabetes, CHF, PAD, etc)
• To see if your condition can be treated with Adult stem cells, please fill out this form: http://bit.ly/PATIENTQUESTIONNAIRE

via STEM CELLS 101

• 100+ DISEASES treated around the world with adult stem cells!
• 60-70% SUCCESS RATE typical therapeutic benefit on INCURABLE DISEASES!!
• POTENTIAL CURES of Autism, Parkinson’s, AIDs, Diabetes, Heart Disease and more!
• HUGE REWARDS of life extension!
• SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVED quality of life!

Geron to Focus on Its Novel Cancer Programs

Company Plans to Partner All Stem Cell Programs

MENLO PARK, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Geron Corporation (Nasdaq: GERN) today announced that, effective immediately, the Company will focus on its first-in-class oncology programs. As a consequence, the Company will discontinue further development of its stem cell programs and is seeking partners for these novel assets.

“Our employees, collaborators and shareholders can be proud of the pioneering role they have played to advance our stem cell technology into the clinic”

“In the current environment of capital scarcity and uncertain economic conditions, we intend to focus our resources on advancing our Phase 2 clinical trials of imetelstat and GRN1005. These two novel and promising oncology drug candidates target major unmet medical needs and have important clinical development milestones occurring over the next 20 months,” said Geron’s Chief Executive Officer, John A. Scarlett, M.D. “By narrowing our focus to the oncology therapeutic area, we anticipate having sufficient financial resources to reach these important near-term value inflection points for shareholders without the necessity of raising additional capital. This would not be possible if we continue to fund the stem cell programs at the current levels.”

…The decision to narrow Geron’s technology and therapeutic focus was made after a strategic review of the costs, value inflection timelines and clinical, manufacturing and regulatory complexities associated with the Company’s research and clinical-stage assets. With this decision, Geron is eliminating 66 full-time positions, representing 38% of its workforce. As a result, the Company expects one-time cash expenditures of approximately $5 million in the fourth quarter of 2011 and approximately $3 million in the first half of 2012. Geron expects to end 2011 with cash and investments in excess of $150 million.

Geron is seeking partners with the technical and financial resources to enable further development of its stem cell programs. “Our employees, collaborators and shareholders can be proud of the pioneering role they have played to advance our stem cell technology into the clinic,” said Dr. Scarlett. “Stem cells continue to hold great medical promise. We believe that our leadership role in the field and the quality of our stem cell assets — which are widely recognized as being among the most innovative, comprehensive and advanced cell therapy programs in the world — will be an important point of differentiation in our discussions to partner these assets.” In order to facilitate transfer of these programs to partners, Geron will retain a core group of employees from its stem cell operations through the end of the second quarter of 2012.

Geron plans to close the GRNOPC1 trial for spinal cord injury to further enrollment, although it will continue to follow all enrolled patients, accruing data and updating FDA and the medical community on their progress. In this trial, GRNOPC1 has been well tolerated with no serious adverse events…

Read more

Related articles:

A HISTORY OF THE GERON EMBRYONIC STEM CELL FIASCO November 15, 2011

EMBRYONICS’ BLEAK FUTURE AND BOTCHED PAST November 15, 2011

To see if your condition can be treated with Adult stem cells, please fill out this form:

Spinal membrane (meninges) is a Source of Stem Cells

SPINAL MENINGES

“…meninges, the membrane which envelops the central nervous system, is a potential source of self-renewing stem cells…”  

Let’s consider:

IF, “Stem cells…serve as a sort of internal repair system, dividing essentially without limit to replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still alive. ” via NIH

AND, there are stem cells in the spinal membrane (meninges).

THEN, the spinal column has it’s own repair system, ie. can repair itself.

Did you think the central nervous system couldn’t repair itself? Wrong. REGENERATING THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM

Did you think spinal cord injuries would not respond to stem cell treatments? Wrong.  SPINAL CORD INJURY + STEM CELL TREATMENTS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New Evidence for Spinal Membrane as a Source of Stem Cells May Advance Treatment of Spinal Cord Injuries

ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2011) — Italian and Spanish scientists studying the use of stem cells for treating spinal cord injuries have provided the first evidence to show that meninges, the membrane which envelops the central nervous system, is a potential source of self-renewing stem cells. The research, published in Stem Cells, develops the understanding of cell activation in central nervous system injuries; advancing research into new treatments for spinal injuries and degenerative brain disorders.

---

The team focused their research on spinal cord injuries, caused when the spinal cord is damaged by trauma rather than disease. Depending on the severity a spinal injury can lead from pain to full paralysis, with high social and medical care costs. As the spinal cord lacks the ability to regenerate, the potential for patient recovery is severely limited.

“Our research offers the first evidence that the spinal cord meninges, the system of membranes which cover the surface of the brain and the spinal cord, contains stem cells which are capable of self-renewal and proliferation,” said lead authors Dr Ilaria Decimo and Dr Francesco Bifari, at the University of Verona.

Following a spinal injury meningeal cells increase in number and migrate to form glial scars and the team believe this process explains part of the mechanism of stem cell activation in central nervous system diseases; a mechanism which could in turn be used for treatments. Dr Decimo’s team microdissected samples of spinal cord meninges from adult rats revealing that meningeal cells contain crucial stem cell properties. It is these properties which increase following a spinal cord injury.

“Our research emphasizes the role of meninges cells in the reaction to spinal cord trauma and indicates for the first time that spinal cord meninges harbour stem cells which are activated by injury,” concluded Dr, Decimo. “Further testing could result in a strategic turnaround for advancing regenerative medicine for treating neurological disorders and spinal cord injuries.”

“This study underlines the importance of endogenous stem cells,” said Stem Cells Editor Dr Miodrag Stojkovic. “Identification of these cells is crucial for understanding the basic mechanisms of cell biology and tissue repair, but also to identify drugs and chemicals which might be used to mobilize meningeal stem cells.”

Journal Reference:

1. Ilaria Decimo, Francesco Bifari, Francisco Javier Rodriguez, Giorgio Malpeli, Sissi Dolci, Valentina Lavarini, Silvia Pretto, Sandra Vasquez, Marina Sciancalepore, Alberto Montalbano, Valeria Berton, Mauro Krampera, Guido Fumagalli. Nestin- and DCX-Positive Cells Reside in Adult Spinal Cord Meninges and Participate to Injury-Induced Parenchymal Reaction. Stem Cells, 2011; DOI: 10.1002/stem.766

New evidence for spinal membrane as a source of stem cells may advance treatment of spinal cord injuries.