PIONEERING??? Heart Study

This makes me crazy.  Thousands, maybe tens of thousands treated to date successfully with studies going back to 2002 and they call this brand new study pioneering?  Consider the triple blind study protocol used:

• 1/3 RECEIVE NOTHING AT ALL
• 1/3 RECEIVE A PLACEBO
• 1/3 RECEIVE STEM CELLS

The odds are not in his favor to even get the treatment.  It’s time to catch up to the rest of the world. – DG

DeBary man takes part in pioneering stem cell study

Dr. David Henderson, left, talks to his patient Robert Anderson, 64, of DeBary recently at Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center in Daytona Beach. Anderson is participating in a clinical research trial that uses a patient’s own stem cells to regenerate cardiovascular tissue. He was the first patient to enroll in the clinical study that started in December at Cardiology Research Associates of Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center.

News-Journal/STEVEN NOTARAS

By Lacey McLaughlin
STAFF WRITER

Published: Monday, February 18, 2013 at 5:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, February 17, 2013 at 5:41 p.m.

DAYTONA BEACH — At 44, Robert Anderson’s career as a chemical engineer was cut short due to pain in his chest and jaw.

A few years earlier doctors had performed bypass surgery on Anderson to repair the deteriorating muscle around his heart. Like 850,000 Americans, Anderson suffers from angina, which causes chest discomfort due to coronary heart disease.

But the surgery was a temporary fix for Anderson, whose diabetes worsened his heart condition. As the pain in his jaw and chest increased when he walked, the DeBary resident was forced into early retirement.

For the past 20 years, Anderson’s life has been limited by his heart condition, which has only worsened.

With no surgical options left, Anderson is hoping his participation in a clinical research trial that uses a patient’s own stem cells to regenerate cardiovascular tissue will improve his quality of life. Some patients taking part in the study also were injected with a placebo…

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NEW STEM CELL TREATMENT STUDY FOCUSES ON PREVENTING SIGHT LOSS FROM DIABETICS

Currently millions of diabetics worldwide are at risk of sight loss due to a condition called Diabetic Retinopathy. This is when high blood sugar causes the blood vessels in the eye to become blocked or to leak. Failed blood flow harms the retina and leads to vision impairment and if left untreated can lead to blindness.  Scientists at Queen’s University Belfast are hoping to develop a novel approach that could save the sight of millions of diabetes sufferers using adult stem cells.

The novel REDDSTAR study (Repair of Diabetic Damage by Stromal Cell Administration) involving researchers from Queen’s Centre for Vision and Vascular Science, will see them isolating stem cells from donors, expanding them in a laboratory setting and re-delivering them to a patient where they help to repair the blood vessels in the eye. This is especially relevant to patients with diabetes were the vessels of the retina become damaged.

At present there are very few treatments available to control the progression of diabetic complications. There are no treatments which will improve glucose levels and simultaneously treat the diabetic complication.  The research is being carried out with NUI Galway and brings together experts from Northern Ireland, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal and the US.

Professor Alan Stitt, Director of the Centre for Vision and Vascular Science in Queen’s and lead scientist for the project said: “The Queen’s component of the REDDSTAR study involves investigating the potential of a unique stem cell population to promote repair of damaged blood vessels in the retina during diabetes. The impact could be profound for patients, because regeneration of damaged retina could prevent progression of diabetic retinopathy and reduce the risk of vision loss.

“Currently available treatments for diabetic retinopathy are not always satisfactory. They focus on end-stages of the disease, carry many side effects and fail to address the root causes of the condition. A novel, alternative therapeutic approach is to harness adult stem cells to promote regeneration of the damaged retinal blood vessels and thereby prevent and/or reverse retinopathy.”

“This new research project is one of several regenerative medicine approaches ongoing in the centre. The approach is quite simple: we plan to isolate a very defined population of stem cells and then deliver them to sites in the body that have been damaged by diabetes. In the case of some patients with diabetes, they may gain enormous benefit from stem cell-mediated repair of damaged blood vessels in their retina. This is the first step towards an exciting new therapy in an area where it is desperately needed.”

The project will develop ways to grow the bone-marrow-derived stem cells. They will be tested in several preclinical models of diabetic complications at centres in Belfast, Galway, Munich, Berlin and Porto before human trials take place in Denmark.

http://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/CentreforVisionandVascularScience/

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BROADCAST JOURNALIST SON TREATED WITH STEM CELLS

Karen Davila resorts to stem-cell therapy for son’s autism

Broadcast journalist Karen Davila’s firstborn, David, was 3½ years old when he was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified (PDD/NOS) in the Autism Spectrum, a severe form of autism. The development pediatrician said there was no cure for David’s condition.   “David didn’t have the classic signs of autism, but clearly he wasn’t developing like other children his age,” says Davila. “At the age of 3, he wasn’t speaking spontaneously, although he could read. He had tantrums, couldn’t express his needs, whether he was hungry or sad, and didn’t reach out to other children his age.”

Like most kids in the autism spectrum, the boy had attention difficulties. “He was spaced out most of the time, and was rigid. It was so heartbreaking to see my eldest this way,” she adds.   Davila refused to accept that there was no answer to her son’s condition. “I researched endlessly and devoted myself to making sure my son got the best possible treatment,” she says. She quickly put her son on a casein- and gluten-free diet and biomedical treatment, under the care of Defeat Autism Now (DAN)-licensed doctors.

Early last year, Davila was offered an opportunity to try the fresh cell therapy being offered by a clinic in Germany.  The stem cells are harvested from lamb fetus and injected into the patient. By then, the journalist-mom had read up on the supposed benefits of stem cell on children with special needs.  In March, mother and son flew to Frankfurt.

“I didn’t consult with David’s doctors,” Davila admits. “But I have an aggressive-progressive approach to David’s condition. I’m willing to try anything that could help my son.  Doctors will frown upon this (lamb stem cell) since it is not accepted in the medical field, but I did try it for David’s sake.”

Around June last year, Dr. Z Teo and his wife, dermatologist Aivee Aguilar-Teo, introduced autologous fat stem-cell therapy or fat stem-cell therapy in their clinic.   Dr. Teo has been performing fat stem cell repair therapy or FSCR in his clinic in Singapore for a few years.

 Unlike the sheep stem cell, FSCR harvests fat from the patient’s tummy or thigh; a machine then isolates the stem cells from the fat. The fresh stem cell is then injected back into the patient’s body to stimulate the production of new, healthy cells. In patients who are too old or too sick, or have autism like David, fat stem cells are taken from a close blood kin.

Speaking to her son’s autism specialists, Davila says they have “no strong opposition against autologous fat stem-cell therapy.”

David’s procedure is deemed safe, “but blood screening, infectious screening, and compatibility testing and complete physical checkup must be performed prior to the procedure,” says Dr. Aguilar-Teo. Compatibility testing is vital to determine which of the parents is a better-match donor, she adds.  The clinic has performed 50-60 FSCRs since last year, only a handful of which share the same case as David’s.

As for its effect on David, “after just a week or two, the results were dramatic,” Davila says. “We noticed that David was quicker in question-and-answer response. He was visibly more aware, more in the moment, and he was bantering more at home and in school.

“Earlier that year, I brought David to Germany for fresh cell therapy. The effects were quite different. I believe that stem cell coming from the human body is clearly more powerful and potent.”

The surgeons in the Teos’ clinic also injected back some of Davila’s fat stem cells into her body. Apart from its purported benefits for people with neurodegenerative and cardiovascular disorders, and diseases like diabetes and asthma, FSCR is largely touted for its anti-aging and aesthetic benefits.  Prominent personalities who have admitted undergoing stem-cell therapy include former Presidents Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.

Speaking to her son’s autism specialists, Davila says they have “no strong opposition against autologous fat stem-cell therapy.”

To read full article, click HERE.

“When considering stem cell treatment you are taking your own health and well being in your hands. Do yourself a favor and surround yourself with positive open minded people who want you to recover. Is this how you describe your doctor, Your family?  Talk to patients who have been treated successfully. Embrace their health, passion and optimism and make it your own. The fastest way to greater health is to want it, believe it can happen, surround yourself with other like minded people and make it happen.”

- DG

 “Be the change u want to see in the world” – Gandhi

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ATHLETES PROLONG CAREER THROUGH STEM CELLS TREATMENTS

Chasing the miracle cure

Jim Bradley understands the season-on-the-brink desperation that, according to Fox Sports, sent Peyton Manning and his ailing neck to Europe this summer, seeking the experimental promise of stem cells. For the past two decades as the Steelers orthopedist, Bradley has listened to injured athletes beg him to be creative in getting them back onto the field. “In the last year, I’ve seen half a dozen guys go to South Korea, Japan, Germany, even Russia for stem cell procedures,” says Bradley, a past president of the NFL Physician’s Society. “And there’s going to be plenty more.”

The 57-year-old doctor should know. In January 2009, after Hines Ward left the AFC championship game with a torn MCL, Bradley administered a form of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy, a strange and novel procedure at the time. Placing a sample of Ward’s blood in a centrifuge, Bradley isolated the plasma and platelets, which contain natural repair engines, then reinjected the serum into the receiver’s injured knee. Ward returned to the field two weeks later for Super Bowl XLIII, a remarkable recovery he and Bradley credit to the procedure. Had the Steeler opted for rest and physical therapy instead, the two say Ward likely would have watched the big game from the sideline.

At the time, Bradley was hailed as a genius; weekend warriors everywhere started asking for the “Hines Ward treatment.” But compared with the latest stem cell technologies, PRP looks about as revolutionary as leeches. Instead of relying on the relatively small number of stem cells that swim in blood, cellular scientists elsewhere in the world are extracting millions more out of bone marrow and fat, then engineering them into injury-fighting miracle workers. In Europe, healthy top-level soccer players are already having their stem cells harvested and grown into lines of bone and connective tissue in case of injury. “They’re doing it so they’ll have a ligament line ready if they get a tear during the season,” Bradley says.

Until last year, Christopher Centeno was doing a booming business culturing mesenchymal stem cells at his Broomfield, Colo., clinic. When NFL defensive end Jarvis Green visited the doctor in 2010 after two failed knee surgeries, the player faced the end of an eight-year career with New England. Shortly after receiving his stem cell treatment, Green was back in the NFL. “Before, I couldn’t walk up the stairs,” he told The Mag. “Three weeks later, I went to an NFL training camp and didn’t miss a day.”

Green’s recovery gave him one more season, with Houston, before he retired. But he had one of the last seats on Centeno’s cultured stem cell miracle train. In August 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration filled a federal injunction to prevent Centeno from culturing stem cells. The FDA claims he was “adulterating” blood in a way that turned it into an unapproved new drug. Centeno, who still provides same-day stem cell procedures, has spent $500,000 fighting the agency’s controversial opinion and even more money moving his culturing operation to a new clinic offshore in the Cayman Islands. “The FDA has pushed this therapy out of the U.S.,” he says.

Source:   Oct. 17 issue of ESPN The Magazine.

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BONE REPAIR THROUGH STEM CELLS

The use of bone stem cells combined with a degradable rigid material that inserts into broken bones and encourages real bone to re-grow has been developed at the Universities of Edinburgh and Southampton.

Researchers have developed the material with a honeycomb scaffold structure that allows blood to flow through it, enabling stem cells from the patient’s bone marrow to attach to the material and grow new bone. Over time, the plastic slowly degrades as the implant is replaced by newly grown bone.  Scientists developed the material by blending three types of plastics. They used a pioneering technique to blend and test hundreds of combinations of plastics, to identify a blend that was robust, lightweight, and able to support bone stem cells. Successful results have been shown in the lab and in animal testing with the focus now moving towards human clinical evaluation.

“Fractures and bone loss due to trauma or disease are a significant clinical and socioeconomic problem.  This collaboration between chemistry and medicine has identified unique candidate materials that support human bone stem cell growth and allow bone formation. The collaborative strategy offers significant therapeutic implications.  We were able to make and look at a hundreds of candidate materials and rapidly whittle these down to one which is strong enough to replace bone and is also a suitable surface upon which to grow new bone.” said Professor Mark Bradley, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Chemistry

“We are confident that this material could soon be helping to improve the quality of life for patients with severe bone injuries, and will help maintain the health of an aging population.”

The study, published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

Sources:

http://www.sciencedaily.com

http://www.southampton.ac.uk/

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EPIDERMAL GROWTH FACTOR INCREAESES STEM CELL REGENERATION AFTER RADIATION

Growth Factor Aids Stem Cell Regeneration After Radiation Damage

Epidermal growth factor has been found to speed the recovery of blood-making stem cells after exposure to radiation, according to Duke Medicine researchers. The finding could open new options for treating cancer patients and victims of dirty bombs or nuclear disasters.

Reported in the Feb. 3, 2013, issue of the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers explored what had first appeared to be an anomaly among certain genetically modified mice with an abundance of epidermal growth factor in their bone marrow. The mice were protected from radiation damage, and the researchers questioned how this occurred.

“Epidermal growth factor was not known to stimulate hematopoiesis, which is the formation of blood components derived from hematopoietic stem cells,” said senior author John Chute, M.D., a professor of medicine and professor of pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke University. “However, our studies demonstrate that the epidermal growth promotes hematopoietic stem cell growth and regeneration after injury.”  Hematopoietic stem cells, which constantly churn out new blood and immune cells, are highly sensitive to radiation damage. Protecting these cells or improving their regeneration after injury could  benefit patients who are undergoing bone marrow transplantation, plus others who suffer radiation injury from accidental environmental exposures such as the Japanese nuclear disaster in 2011.”

The Duke researchers launched their investigation using mice specially bred with deletions of two genes that regulate the death of endothelial cells, which line the inner surface of blood vessels and are thought to regulate the fate of hematopoietic stem cells. Blood vessels and the hematopoietic system in these mice were less damaged when exposed to high doses of radiation, improving their survival.  An analysis of secretions from bone marrow endothelial cells of the protected mice showed that epidermal growth factor (EGF) was significantly elevated — up to 18-fold higher than what was found in the serum of control mice.  The researchers then tested whether EGF could directly spur the growth of stem cells in irradiated bone marrow cultured in the lab. It did, with significant recovery of stem cells capable of repopulating transplanted mice.  Next, the Duke team tried the approach in mice using three different solutions of cells in animals undergoing bone marrow transplants. One group received regular bone marrow cells; a second group got bone marrow cells from donors that had been irradiated and treated with EGF; a third group got bone marrow cells from irradiated donors treated with saline.  The regular bone marrow cells proliferated well and had the highest rate of engraftment in the recipient mice. But mice that were transplanted with the cells from irradiated/EGF-treated donors had 20-fold higher engraftment rate than the third group.

Additional studies showed that EGF improved survival from a lethal radiation exposure, with 93 percent of mice surviving the radiation dose if they subsequently received treatment with EGF, compared to 53 percent surviving after treatment with a saline solution.

Chute said it appears that EGF works by repressing a protein called PUMA that normally triggers stem cell death following radiation exposure.

“We are just beginning to understand the mechanisms through which EGF promotes stem cell regeneration after radiation injury,” Chute said. “This study suggests that EGF might have potential to accelerate the recovery of the blood system in patients treated with chemotherapy or radiation.”

Source:  Duke Health.org

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1 MILLION CUSTOMERS SERVED

1 Millionth Blood Stem Cell Transplant Marks Major Medical Milestone

The collaborative work of medical scientists and physicians across the globe has resulted in a major medical milestone: the world’s 1 millionth blood stem cell transplant, a procedure that has become a proven and essential therapy for many patients battling blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma, as well as other critical diseases.

The Worldwide Network for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (WBMT) announced the landmark achievement today. The WBMT—a nonprofit scientific organization whose mission is promoting excellence in stem cell transplantation, stem cell donation and cellular therapy—said the 1 millionth transplant occurred in late December 2012. The finding is based on data collected by WBMT international member organizations involved in blood stem cell transplantation, which were analyzed and verified by the WBMT.

“One million transplants is a milestone that may surprise many people, because blood stem cell transplants were viewed as a rare procedure until the last decade or so,” said Dietger Niederwieser, M.D., president of the WBMT and professor of medicine in the division of hematology and medical oncology at the University Hospital of Leipzig, Germany. “But important discoveries—and the vital cooperation of many scientists and physicians around the world—have dramatically improved outcomes for patients who undergo stem cell transplantation.”

The first blood stem cell transplant was reported by Dr. E. Donnall Thomas in 1957, who received the Nobel Prize in 1990 for pioneering the use of this innovative approach to treatment of leukemia and other life-threatening diseases.

By the late 1960s, as knowledge of the requirements for matching patients with donors evolved, physicians were performing successful allogeneic transplants, using blood-forming stem cells from sibling donors (among the first in U.S., Holland and France). In 1973, the first successful transplant between two unrelated people occurred in New York, when a young boy received a transplant from a donor identified as a match through a blood bank in Denmark. In 1988, the first successful umbilical cord blood transplant was performed in Paris.

Since then, a near-exponential rise in all types of blood stem cell transplants, particularly from unrelated donors, has occurred. This is largely thanks to the willingness of now more than 20 million voluntary stem cell donors worldwide. Today, unrelated transplants are often as successful as those that use family donors.

International partners will help make this continued growth possible. Already, data from the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA), a WBMT partner, show that nearly half of the transplants performed with unrelated donors cross an international border. International donor registries not only expand the pool of potential donors, they help advance the global science of transplantation through the exchange of information.

“It must be especially emphasized that WBMT has contributed to the advances of blood stem cell transplants in emerging countries in the Asia-Pacific region and in the other areas of the world, where the awareness to this medical procedure is sharply increasing,” said Yoshihisa Kodera, vice president of WBMT, chairman of APBMT and professor of Aichi Medical University, Japan.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized transplantation as an important global task, recently recognizing the WBMT as a non-governmental organization (NGO). “Transplantation has extended the lifespan of hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide and enhanced their quality of life,” said Luc Noël, M.D., of WHO. “It has become the standard of care for many patients, and should no longer be restricted to affluent countries or individuals.”

Today, more than 70 malignant and non-malignant diseases are treated routinely with blood stem cell transplantation, providing new cures for patients around the globe. The procedure technique itself has improved considerably because of dedicated cancer centers but also because of collaboration and cooperation among scientists, clinicians, nurses and data managers, as well as the 19 international scientific societies that establish standards, collect data on the procedure and analyze outcomes. In patients with optimal conditions, disease-free survival rates are now reaching more than 90 percent.

“Worldwide, more than 50,000 patients a year are receiving transplants, in regions ranging from the Asia-Pacific to the Mid-East to Central America,” said Dennis Confer, M.D., treasurer of the WBMT and chief medical officer of the U.S.-based National Marrow Donor Program^® (NMDP). “The curative potential of this therapy will only increase, thanks to the commitment and collaboration of researchers and physicians across the globe.”

BERN, Switzerland, Jan. 30, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – (www.globenewswire.com)

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FDA APPROVED SCHWANN CELL TRANSPLANT

 

Doctors Perform First FDA Approved Schwann Cell Transplant in Patient with New Spinal Cord Injury

Doctors at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, a Center of Excellence at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, performed the first-ever Food and Drug Administration approved Schwann cell transplantation in a patient with a new spinal cord injury. The procedure, performed at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center, is a Phase 1 clinical trial designed to evaluate the safety and feasibility of transplanting the patient’s own Schwann cells.

“This historic clinical trial represents a giant step forward in a field of medicine where each tangible step has tremendous value. This trial, and these first patients in this trial specifically, are extremely important to our mission of curing paralysis,” said neurosurgeon Barth Green, M.D., Co-Founder and Chairman of The Miami Project, and Professor and Chair of Neurological Surgery. “The Miami Project team includes hundreds of scientists, clinicians, and technicians who have joined hands to make the ‘impossible possible,’ for which this trial is a key goal and dream now being realized. This achievement reaffirms that the tens of millions of dollars and the incalculable work hours were well invested in this first of a kind human Schwann cell project.”

Led by W. Dalton Dietrich, Ph.D., Scientific Director of The Miami Project and Professor of Neurological Surgery, Neurology and Cell Biology & Anatomy, the Schwann cell clinical trial team at The Miami Project is composed of a multidisciplinary group of basic science and clinical faculty members, scientific staff, and regulatory personnel focused on advancing the trial. The transplantation procedure was conducted by the Principal Investigators of the trial, Dr. Allan Levi, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Neurological Surgery, Orthopedic, and Rehabilitation, and James Guest, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery. The patient had a neurologically complete thoracic spinal injury and received the transplantation of autologous Schwann cells about four weeks post-injury. There have been no adverse events and the team is moving forward with the trial.

 

This image shows a cultured Schwann cell stained for the actin cytoskeleton with phalloidin-Rd.

SCHWANN CELL:

“a cell that forms spiral layers around a myelinated nerve fiber between two nodes of Ranvier and forms the myelin sheath consisting of the inner spiral layers from which the protoplasm has been squeezed out.”   (Source)

“As a basic scientist, the hope is always to increase knowledge and discovery,” said Dietrich. “Not every day are you able to see that translated into the clinical realm with the hopes of bettering the lives of those suffering, so this Phase I clinical trial is a vital step for the field of SCI research, and for The Miami Project team that has been working diligently on this therapeutic concept for more than a quarter of a century. This trial, when completed successfully, will lay the critical foundation for future cell-based therapies to target spinal cord injuries.”

The Miami Project clinical trial will enroll a total of eight participants with acute thoracic SCI. Newly injured patients brought to the trauma center would have to meet the stringent inclusion criteria. The participants will undergo a biopsy of a sensory nerve in one leg to obtain the tissue from which to grow their own Schwann cells. The Schwann cells are then grown in a state-of-the art culturing facility for three to five weeks to generate the number of cells necessary for transplantation, and to undergo the strict purification process. By the time the Schwann cells are surgically transplanted into the injury site, participants will be 26-42 days post-injury.

All procedures will be conducted at UM/Jackson and The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, with colleagues at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Each participant will be followed intensively for one year after receiving the transplantation surgery, and their neurologic status, medical status, pain symptoms, and muscle spasticity will be evaluated. It is expected that it could be two to three years from the time the first subject is enrolled until the final subject is one year post-transplantation. All participants will continue to be monitored for an additional four years under a separate clinical protocol. This Phase I trial is the foundation upon which The Miami Project will develop future cell transplant trials targeting different types of injuries, times post-injury, and therapeutic combinations.

Posted on January 24, 2013 By Neuroscience News Featured, Neurology (Source)

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‘Brimming with energy’ after $20K stem cell treatment

A great example of the benefits of adult stem cells.  Treatments are now in the $8-10,000 range with even more advanced treatment techniques. – David

‘Brimming with energy’ after $20K stem cell treatment

Jennifer Vasilakos got the shocking surprise of her life after helping a man who stopped to ask her for directions. That man happened to be the billionaire founder of the Beanie Baby company and what he did may have saved her life. NBC’s Kristen Dahlgren reports.

By Kristen Dahlgren and Erica Ayisi, NBC News

COVERAGE OF STORY ON NBC NEWS – VIDEO

JENNIFER’S STORY IN HER OWN WORDS – VIDEO

What started out as a modest fundraising event held in a Santa Barbara, Calif., parking lot has turned into a life-changing moment for Jennifer Vasilakos, thanks to a chance meeting with Beanie Baby billionaire Ty Warner.

It all began in a parking lot in July of last year. Vasilakos, 42, set up a table near her hometown’s annual Santa Barbara French Festival to raise money for stem cell treatment, displaying signs and flyers that explained her cause. She also brought a small moneybox to stash cash made from parking cars for festival-goers.

Equipped with sunglasses, a water bottle and coffee, Vasilakos was prepared to spend the day raising awareness and telling people her personal story – that she was diagnosed with acute renal failure in 2011 and had received dialysis three times a day, three times a week. It was a grueling regimen that she would endure the rest of her life. A kidney transplant wasn’t an option; she had been rejected as a candidate because of a previous bout with cancer.

Vasilakos, a Reiki teacher and herbalist, decided her only option was to save up for stem cell treatment – a costly procedure that is not performed in the United States.

But as the day wore on, her moneybox largely remained empty. The festival, she said, “was completely dead.”

That’s when a lost driver in a “small little car” drove up, looking for directions. Jennifer chatted him up.

Ty Warner, Beanie Baby creator and chief executive of Ty Inc., arrives at the Toy Fair to sign

“The man rolls down the window, has a piece of paper in his hand and he’s looking for a local business,” she recalled. “I provide him instructions and because I am fundraising that day to get my stem cell treatment, I hand him my flyer.”

The man gave her $50.

About an hour later, the driver returned, looked her in the eye and asked if she was the woman in the flyer raising money for stem cell treatment. She confirmed that she was.

Courtesy of Jennifer Vasilakos

Jennifer Vasilakos received this note from Ty Warner, accompanied by a check for $20,000. It reads: “Dear Jennifer, Someone up there loves you because I was guided to meet you on Saturday. I never lose my way, but fate had me lost and ask you for direction. The rest of the story I hope will be a wonderful new life for you. God bless you Jennifer. Ty.”

The man replied, “I’m Ty Warner, and I’d like to help you with this and take care of it for you.”

Yes, that Ty Warner – of Ty Inc., the billionaire brain behind the Beanie Babies collectibles craze. Vasilakos said she recognized his name but had no idea he would ultimately make a huge donation.

“I was hoping to raise a few hundred dollars that day by the generosity of my community for the stem cell treatment that I needed to get,” she said. “I had no idea I would meet Ty Warner that day.”

On her blog, Vasilakos wrote: “I listened as he repeated over and over that he was going to help me. That my fundraising was done. That I didn’t need to worry any longer. He said he would send a check after he returned to his offices during the week.”

Several days after they met, Vasilakos received a $20,000 check from Warner along with a handwritten note. She said she hopes it “was a little birdy in his ear that said, ‘You should help this woman.’”

Vasilakos had the stem cell treatment last year…

Warner, according to a prepared statement, was enlightened by their chance encounter.

“After I serendipitously met Jennifer, I further educated myself on her stem cell needs. I was shocked that this particular type of treatment wasn’t available to her in the U.S.,” Warner said. “My hope is that we can bring this lifesaving treatment to the forefront so that it can become more readily available and provide alternatives for people like Jennifer.”

Vasilakos underwent the treatment in September 2012 and now, after months of recovery, she says she feels great.

“The day the length of my dialysis treatment was reduced to two and half hours per treatment was an exciting day. I regained three hours of freedom per month! My blood pressure has dropped down to normal with lower and lower levels of medication,” she wrote recently on her blog. “The biggest change is how amazing I feel, and I am brimming with energy. My immune system has become resilient, and I can feel the difference in my body.”

via ‘Brimming with energy’ after $20K stem cell treatment – The Daily Nightly.

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/50485093#50485093

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STEM CELL TREATMENTS TO BATTLE DMD (DUCHENNE MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY)

Stem-Cell Approach Shows Promise for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

“Researchers have shown that transplanting stem cells derived from normal mouse blood vessels into the hearts of mice that model the pathology associated with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) prevents the decrease in heart function associated with DMD.”

Their findings appear in the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a genetic disorder caused by a mutation in the gene for dystrophin, a protein that anchors muscle cells in place when they contract. Without dystrophin, muscle contractions tear cell membranes, leading to cell death. The lost muscle cells must be regenerated, but in time, scar tissue replaces the muscle cells, causing the muscle weakness and heart problems typical of DMD.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that DMD affects one in every 3,500 males. The disease is more prevalent in males because the dystrophin mutation occurs on the X chromosome; males have one X and one Y chromosome, so a male with this mutation will have DMD, while females have two X chromosomes and must have the mutation on both of them to have the disease. Females with the mutation in one X chromosome sometimes develop muscle weakness and heart problems as well, and may pass the mutation on to their children.  Although medical advances have extended the lifespans of DMD patients from their teens or 20s into their early 30s, disease-related damage to the heart and diaphragm still limits their lifespan.

“Almost 100 percent of patients develop dilated cardiomyopathy,” in which a weakened heart with enlarged chambers prevents blood from being properly pumped throughout the body, said University of Illinois comparative biosciences professor Suzanne Berry-Miller, who led the study. “Right now, doctors are treating the symptoms of this heart problem by giving patients drugs to try to prolong heart function, but that can’t replace the lost or damaged cells,” she said.

In the new study, the researchers injected stem cells known as aorta-derived mesoangioblasts (ADM) into the hearts of dystrophin-deficient mice that serve as a model for human DMD. The ADM stem cells have a working copy of the dystrophin gene.  This stem cell therapy prevented or delayed heart problems in mice that did not already show signs of the functional or structural defects typical of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the researchers report.

Berry-Miller and her colleagues do not yet know why the functional benefits occur, but proposed three potential mechanisms. They observed that some of the injected stem cells became new heart muscle cells that expressed the lacking dystrophin protein. The treatment also caused existing stem cells in the heart to divide and become new heart muscle cells, and the stem cells stimulated new blood vessel formation in the heart. It is not yet clear which of these effects is responsible for delaying the onset of cardiomyopathy, Berry-Miller said.

“These vessel-derived cells might be good candidates for therapy, but the more important thing is the results give us new potential therapeutic targets to study.  Activating stem cells that are already present in the body to repair tissue would avoid the potential requirement to find a match between donors and recipients and potential rejection of the stem cells by the patients.”

Despite the encouraging results that show that stem cells yield a functional benefit when administered before pathology arises in DMD mouse hearts, a decline in function was seen in mice that already showed the characteristics of dilated cardiomyopathy. One of these characteristics is the replacement of muscle tissue with connective tissue, known as fibrosis.

This difference may occur, Berry-Miller said, as a result of stem cells landing in a pocket of fibrosis rather than in muscle tissue. The stem cells may then become fibroblasts that generate more connective tissue, increasing the amount of scarring and making heart function worse. This shows that the timing of stem cell insertion plays a crucial role in an increase in heart function in mice lacking the dystrophin protein.

She remains optimistic that these results provide a stepping-stone toward new clinical targets for human DMD patients.

“This is the only study so far where a functional benefit has been observed from stem cells in the dystrophin-deficient heart, or where endogenous stem cells in the heart have been observed to produce new muscle cells that replace those lost in DMD, so I think it opens up a new area to focus on in pre-clinical studies for DMD,” Berry-Miller said.

The Illinois Regenerative Medicine Institute supported this research.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130114133350.htm

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