Studies in cell transplantation show beneficial effects for variety of serious conditions

American Society for Neural Therapy and Repair members further cell transplantation efforts

2015-04-28

(Press-News.org) Putnam Valley, NY. (April 28, 2015) - Five studies from the current special issue of Cell Transplantation 24(4) devoted to work presented at the 21st meeting of the American Society for Neural Therapy and Repair (ASNTR) in 2014, a society for scientists focused on understanding the causes of, and developing cell and gene therapy and biopharmaceuticals for neurological injury and disease, are currently freely available on-line at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/2015/00000024/00000004.

MSCs promote improvement in patient with complete spinal cord injury Complete spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to profound disability and, with long-term complications, even death. This study demonstrated the potential of transplanted bone marrow nucleated cells (BMNCs) to restore feeling and function to the lower body. Over a two year period, researchers assessed the safety and efficacy of combined intravenous/intrathecally administered autologous (self-donated) BMNCs and multiple lumbar puncture administered mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) injections in treating a patient with complete SCI. Results suggested that the treatment had the potential to produce "clinically meaningful improvements for SCI patients" as this patient experienced a restored ability to control his body trunk, a restoration of bladder and anal sensation, and gained the ability to stand with a standing frame and walk with the support of hip and knee ortheses. Contact: Dr. Marcin Majka, Department of Transplantation, Polish-American Institute of Pediatrics, Jagiellonian University, Wielicka St. 265, 30-663 Cracow, Poland.
Email: mmajika@cm-uj.krakow.pl
Fax: +48-12-659-1594
Ph: +48-12-659-1593 Citation: Jarocha, D.; Milczarek, O.; Wedrychowicz, A.; Kwiatkowski, S.; Majka, M. Continuous Improvement After Multiple Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantations in a Patient With Complete Spinal Cord Injury Cell Transplant. 24(4):661-672; 2015.

Bone marrow MSC culture enhances human neural stem cells "Rapid loss of stemness capacity in purified prototype neural stem cells (NSCs) remains a serious challenge to basic and clinical studies aimed at repairing the central nervous system," wrote a team of researchers from the Harvard Medical School and the Boston Veteran's Administration Health System. The researchers tested human NSCs and human MSCs to find out if bone marrow-derived MSCs could enhance the "stemness" of human NSCs. They speculated that the a biological pathway called Notch-1 might be a major mechanism through which hNSCs and hMSCs communicate to 'modulate' their stemness biology through direct interactions, offering a potential strategy for hNSC stemness enhancement. After their experiments in co-culturing hNSCs and hMSCs they found that enhancement of the stemness of hNSCs occurred through Notch-1 signaling. "Our finding provides mechanistic leads for devising effective regimens to sustain and augment stemness of in vitro established hNSC and hMSC lines for use in basic science as well as translational and clinical applications," concluded the researchers.

Contact: Dr. Yang D. Teng
Email: yang_teng@hms.harvard.edu
Citation: : Haragopal, H.; Yu, D.; Zeng, X.; Kim, S-W.; Han, I-B.; Ropper, A. E.; Anderson, J. E.; Teng, Y. D. Stemness Enhancement of Human Neural Stem Cells Following Bone Marrow MSC Coculture Cell Transplant. 24(4):645-659; 2015.

Primate model of Parkinson's disease study shows role for upgrading endogenous neurons The possibilities for having the brain help heal itself when afflicted by neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD) is an area of interest. In this study, researchers observed primates modeled with PD and assessed changes in the numbers of neurons expressing the enzyme tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), a precursor for dopamine. They discovered "a close relationship" between PD symptom severity and striatal DA neuron numbers. The possibility of increasing the numbers of these neurons as compensation for their depletion in PD by artificial means "could prove beneficial for PD treatment, especially for individuals in the early disease stages," they concluded. Contact: Dr. Andrew.Bubank, University of Colorado-Denver, Department of Integrative Biology,
Campus Box 171 POB 17336, Denver, CO 80217-3364
Email: Andrew.Bubank@ucdenver.edu
Ph: 605-481-0349 END

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