StemCell Therapy

Richard and Louise Blanchfield, who have developed a healthy cook book with recipes which helped Richard (Andrew Cawley / DC Thomson)

LOUISE Blanchfield watched as her husband Richard struggled to pull himself up from the chair.

She pondered what the doctor had said that he wouldnt get any better, he would get worse and could be in a wheelchair by the time he was 60.

At just 41 and a father of two young children she struggled to accept his deteriorating way of life.

So she decided to do what any doting wife would: find a solution.

Five years on, Richards crippling arthritis and bowel disease have all but disappeared.

And hes grateful to Louise every single day.

I just couldnt accept that was the future for my husband, Louise said. He deserved more than that.

Richard, 46, struggled with ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease, from the age of 18.

Things got worse five years ago when it developed into secondary inflammatory arthritis.

He needed help getting dressed and couldnt cook, which was something he loved.

Scientist and physiotherapist Louise took on the role of family chef and spent her nights trawling the internet once the couples kids Megan and Alec, now 12 and 9, were tucked up in bed, determined to end her husbands agony.

Louise learned that gluten could be a major factor in inflammation, so cut that from the familys diet, then dairy.

She started to follow clean eating methods, with salads and vegetables, and introduced more fish.

It was a slow process, but within months, Richards symptoms began to improve.

A few years on and the doting dad, who works in renewable energy, has made a miraculous recovery. He now regularly plays tennis and shows virtually no signs of arthritis.

His last colonoscopy showed a normal-looking bowel and hes in remission from colitis.

In a nutshell, Richard is better, said Louise, 42. He has the occasional arthritis flare-up, like at Christmas when he falls off the dietary wagon. Well, were not perfect!

People often dont connect what they eat with their health. But anything from infertility to migraines and digestion problems can be alleviated by closer attention to diet.

Louises foodie theory led her to take a course in nutritional therapy. Shes now qualified in the field and launched her new company, The Food Physio, last year.

The couple, from Freuchie in Fife, are in the final stages of completing a cookbook, The Food Physio: Eating My Way Back to Health, filled with gluten and dairy-free recipes, all of which have been tried and tested by the Blanchfields.

They hope it will hit the shelves this summer.

Richard was a non-believer and look at him now. Hes proof that it can work, said Louise.

When youre ill, it can feel like theres no light at the end of the tunnel. But you can lie down and accept it or try to make it better and we did just that.

To pre-order the book, visit thefoodphysio.com

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How wife's clean eating plan helped husband's crippling pain from arthritis and bowel disease all but disappear - The Sunday Post

Stem Cell Therapy: Repair and Regenerate Our Bodies

$USRM

Stem Cells 101: The primary purpose of stem cells is to maintain, heal and regenerate tissues wherever they reside in the body. This is a continuous process that occurs inside the body throughout life. If we did not have stem cells, our lifespan would be about 1 hour, because there would be nothing to replace exhausted cells or damaged tissue.

Notably: any time the body is exposed to any sort of toxin, the inflammatory process causes stem cells to swarm the area to repair the damage.

While it is easy to think of stem cell therapy as some sort of magic, it is wise to implement strategies that nourish and optimize the stem cells we already have in your body.

Dr. Kristin Comella, a notable Stem Cell innovator, writes: You have to create an appropriate environment for these cells to function in. If you are putting garbage into your body and youre constantly burdening your body with toxins, your stem cells are getting too distracted trying to fight off those toxins. By creating an appropriate environment, optimizing your diet and reducing exposure to toxins, that will allow the stem cells that were putting in to really home in and focus on the true issue that were trying to treat.

The other thing weve discovered over the years is that [stem cell therapy] is not the type of thing where you take one dose and youre cured forever. Your tissues are constantly getting damaged Youre going to have to repeat-dose and use those stem cells to your advantage.

When you think about a lizard that loses its tail, it takes two years to grow back the tail. Why would we put unrealistic expectations on the stem cells that were trying to apply to repair or replace damaged tissue? This is a very slow process. This is something that will occur over months and may require repeat dosing.

Stem cells historically were isolated from bone marrow, and have been used for bone marrow transplants for cancer patients since the 1930s. However, we can get stem cells from just about any tissue in the body, every tissue contains stem cells.

Actually our marrow has very low amounts of mesenchymal stem cells, which are now believed to be the most important, from a therapeutic perspective.

Mesenchymal stem cells help trigger an immunomodulatory response or a paracrine effect, which means they send signals out to the rest of the body, calling cells to the area to help promote healing.

What weve discovered in more recent years is that a more plentiful source of stem cells is actually your fat tissue. [Body] fat can contain up to 500 times more cells than your bone marrow, as far as these mesenchymal type stem cells go.

One thing thats also critically important when youre talking about isolating the cells is the number of other cells that are going to be part of that population. When youre isolating a bone marrow sample, this actually is very high in white blood cells, which are pro-inflammatory, Ms. Comella writes.

White blood cells are part of the human immune response.

When an injury occurs, or a foreign body enters our system, white blood cells will attack. Unfortunately, white blood cells do not discriminate, and can create quite a bit of damage as they clean the area out.

Stem cells, in particular the mesenchymal cells, quiet down the white blood cells and then start the regeneration phase, which leads to new tissue. Bone marrow tends to be very high in white blood cells and low in the mesenchymal cells.

So, isolating stem cells from fat tissue is preferred not only because its easier on the patient, but fat also contains a higher population of mesenchymal cells and fewer white blood cells.

The benefit also of isolating [stem cells from] fat is that its a relatively simple procedure. Theres typically no shortage of fat tissue, especially in Americans, Dr.. Comella says. Also, as you age, your bone marrow declines with regards to the number of cells in it, whereas the fat tissue maintains a pretty high number of stem cells, even in older individuals.

Fat can be successfully harvested from just about anyone, regardless of their age or how thin they are. The procedure is done under local anesthesia, meaning that the patient stays awake. We can harvest as few as 15 cubic centimeters of fat, which is a very small amount of fat, and still get a very high number of stem cells.

A stem cell procedure can cost anywhere from $5,000 15,000, depending on what one is having done, and rarely if ever will insurance cover it.

Still, when compared it to the cost of long-term medications or the out-of-pocket cost of getting a knee replacement, stem cell therapy may still be a less expensive alternative.

Also, a single extraction will typically yield enough stem cells for 20 to 25 future treatments, should one decide to store his/her stem cells for future needs.

I think its accessible for patients, Dr.. Comella says. Its an out-patient procedure. You plan to be in clinic for about two hours; no real limitations afterwards, just no submerging in water, no alcohol, no smoking for a week. But other than that, patients can resume their normal activities and go about their regular daily lives.

She notes that patients who eat a very healthy diet, focusing on Organic and grass fed foods, have body fat that is very hearty and almost sticky, yielding high amounts of very healthy stem cells.

We can grow much better and faster stem cells from that fat than [the fat from] somebody who eats a grain-based diet or is exposed to a lot of toxins in their diet, she says. Their fat tends to be very fluffy, buttery yellow. The cells that come out of that are not necessarily as good a quality. Its just been very interesting. And of note, patients that are cigarette smokers, their fat is actually gray-tinged in color. The stem cells do not grow well at all.

What has been described above is whats called an autologous donation, meaning a person is getting the stem cells from oneself. A number of companies provide non-autologous donations using cells harvested from other people, typically women, like amniotic or embryonic mesenchymal cells.

This is an important distinction.

There are now just a couple of studies that have been published comparing an autologous source, meaning cells from you own body, to an allogeneic source, meaning cells from someone else.

So far, what has been discovered is that the autologous cells will outperform somebody elses cells inside ones body. This is not fully understood yet. It may be that the environment that ones own cells function in, and that they used to that environment. They recognize it. It is the same DNA and they can function well there.

But, once the culture is expanded and a pure population of these mesenchymal cells, not necessarily the sample thats coming right off of the liposuction, but a sample that has been taken to the lab and grown, those cells will not elicit an immune response if you use them in someone else. You could scientifically and medically use those in an unmatched person. However, there are some regulatory aspects of that with regards to the FDA.

In the US, there are a variety of new stem cell products available, referred to as amniotic, cord blood products or placenta products, which are prepared at a tissue bank. Such facilities must be registered with the FDA, and the products must undergo additional processing.

For example, they must be morselized, or snap frozen or blended in some way. Such processing typically breaks the membrane, releasing growth factors, and the resulting products are called acellular, meaning there are no living cells remaining in the sample.

The amniotic products available in the US are not so much stem cell products as they are growth factor products.

Dr. Comella notes: They can be useful in creating an immunomodulatory response, which can help to promote healing, but that still differs from the living stem cell procedures that can be done by either isolating cells from your fat or bone marrow. As a general rule, you do not achieve the clinical benefits when using an amniotic product, primarily because they do not contain living stem cells.

I want to contrast that to what are called embryonic stem cells, Dr. Comella adds. The products obtained from cord blood, from women who are having babies, are not embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are when you are first bringing the egg and sperm together. Three days after that, you can isolate what is called an inner cell mass. This inner cell mass can be used to then grow cells in culture, or that inner cell mass could eventually lead to the formation of a baby.

Those are embryonic stem cells, and those are pluripotential, meaning that they have the ability to form an entire being, versus adult stem cells or stem cells that are present in amniotic tissue, [which] are multipotential, which only have the ability to form subsets of tissue.

When youre dealing with different diseases or damaged tissue or inflammation, mostly you want to repair tissue. If somebody has damage in their knee, they dont necessarily need embryonic cells because they dont need a baby in their knee. They need new cartilage in their knee.

A common question is whether stem cells can cause overgrowth, leading to cancer or tumor formation.

As noted by Dr. Comella, this is a problem associated with embryonic stem cells, which tend to grow very rapidly and can form a teratoma because of the rapid cell growth. Adult stem cells, the cells obtained from ones own body, have growth inhibitions and will not form teratomas.

The theoretical concern that has been addressed in animal models or in petri dishes is that if you take cancer cells that are growing in a dish and apply stem cells, it may make those cancer cells grow more rapidly. But this does not translate in-vivo to humans.

If there was truly an issue with applying stem cells to a patient who has cancer, we would know about it by now, because weve been dosing cancer patients with stem cells since the 1930s. The safety profile is strong and there are tens of thousands of patients documented with these treatments, Dr. Comella says.

Another useful therapy is platelet-rich plasma (PRP).

Our peripheral blood contains platelets, which act as 1st responders when theres an injury. They come in and start the clotting mechanism, thereby preventing one from bleeding to death. They also give marching orders to other cells.

For example: platelets can command stem cells to multiply and grow, or to differentiate and form new tissue.

These platelets also have many different growth factors associated with them, which can help to promote healing and stop inflammation. PRP involves taking a blood sample and then spinning the blood in a centrifuge to isolate the platelets. The platelet-rich plasma is then injected back into the area that is inflamed.

One of the most common uses of platelet-rich plasma or PRP is in a joint. Now, platelets are going to be most successful in something that is rich in stem cells [such as] an acute or a very recent injury.

If you just hurt your knee, the first thing you should do is get PRP, because its going to help promote healing, and those platelets will attach to the surface receptors of the stem cells that are already going to the area to promote healing. It would be like putting fertilizer on your seed, which are the stem cells.

If you have something more chronic, this tends to be a stem cell-poor environment. In other words, you have osteoarthritis or youve got knee pain thats 5 years old and its been there for a long time; just putting PRP in it would be like putting fertilizer on dirt without planting a seed first.

The beauty of stem cell therapy is that it mimics a process that is ongoing in the human body all the time. Our stem cells are continuously promoting healing, and they do not have to be manipulated in any way. The stem cells naturally know how to home in on areas of inflammation and how to repair damaged tissue.

All were doing is harnessing the cells from one location where theyre sitting dormant and relocating them to exactly where we want them and we need them to work, Dr. Comella says. Basically, anything inside your body that is inflamed, that is damaged in some way, that is lacking blood supply, the [stem] cells can successfully treat.

That means orthopedics, knee injections, shoulder injections, osteoarthritis, acute injuries, anterior cruciate ligament tears in the back, back pain associated with degenerative disc disease or damaged tendons or ligaments, herniated and bulging discs. You can also use it in systemic issues, everything from diabetes, to cardiac, to lungs, any tissue organ inside your body that has been damaged.

Autoimmune diseases can also be treated. The stem cells are naturally immunosuppressant, meaning they can help quiet down an over reactive immune system and help the immune system function in a more normal way. Neurological diseases, traumatic brain injury, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinsons. All of these have to do with tissue thats not functioning properly. The cells can be used to address that.

It is very impressive, the list of different diseases that could benefit from this intervention.

Again, it is not magic, but one can dramatically improve the benefits of this intervention by combining it with other healthy lifestyle factors that optimize mitochondrial function, such as eating a healthy Real food diet, exercising, sleeping well, avoiding toxins and detoxifying from toxic influences.

Stem Cells for Anti-Aging: Stem cells can also be used as part of an anti-aging program.

Dr. Comella has used stem cells on herself for several years, and report feeling better now than she did 10 year ago.

She writes,The ability to reduce inflammation inside your body is basically making yourself live longer. Inflammation is what kills us all. Its what makes our telomeres shrink. Its what causes us pain and discomfort. Its what makes the tissues start to die. The ability to dose yourself with stem cells and bring down your inflammation, which is most likely caused by any sort of toxin that youve been exposed to, breathing air is exposure to toxins, this is going to lengthen your lifespan.

I typically will do a dose every six to 12 months, regardless of whats going on. If I have anything that is bothering me, if I tweak my knee at the gym, then I absolutely will come in and do an injection in my knee. I want to keep my tissue healthy for as long as possible.

I want to stay strong. I dont want to wait until something is wrong with me. I think that this is the future of medicine. This is what were going to start to see. People will begin to get their regular doses of [their own] stem cells and itll just be common practice.

Keep in mind theres a gradual and progressive decline in the quality and the number of stem cells as we age, so if considering this approach, it would be to your advantage to extract and bank your stem cells as early on as possible. US Stem Cell provides a stem cell bank service, so one can store them until a later date when you might need them.

Your stem cells are never as young as they are right now. Every minute that you live, your telomeres are shrinking. The ability to lock in the youth of your cells today can be very beneficial for you going forward, and for your health going forward. God forbid something happens. What if you have a heart attack? Youre not going to get clearance to get a mini-lipo aspirate procedure.

If you have your cells waiting in the bank, ready for you, it becomes very easy to pull a dose and do an IV delivery of cells. Its almost criminal that were not doing this for every single one of our cardiac patients. This should be standard practice. We should be having every single patient bank their stem cells at a young age and have them waiting, ready and available. The technology is there. We have it. Im not sure why this technology is not being made available to everyone, she says.

I think stem cell therapy is very different than traditional medicine. Stem cell therapy may actually make it so that you dont have to be dependent on pharmaceutical medications. You can actually repair the tissue and thats it. This is a very different way of viewing medicine.

For a Physician in your area providing the service, you can go there. US Stem Cell can help you locate a qualified doctor.

Eat healthy, Be healthy, Live lively

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Paul A. Ebeling, polymath, excels in diverse fields of knowledge. Pattern Recognition Analyst in Equities, Commodities and Foreign Exchange and author of The Red Roadmasters Technical Report on the US Major Market Indices, a highly regarded, weekly financial market letter, he is also a philosopher, issuing insights on a wide range of subjects to a following of over 250,000 cohorts. An international audience of opinion makers, business leaders, and global organizations recognizes Ebeling as an expert.

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Stem Cell Therapy: Repair and Regenerate Our Bodies - Live ... - Live Trading News

New York Post

Stem cell therapy will attempt to bring the dead back to life New York Post Attempts to bring people back from the dead could start in a few months, it's been reported. Bioquark, a Philadelphia-based company, has revealed it will start new stem cell therapy trials in an unidentified country in Latin America later this year.

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Stem cell therapy will attempt to bring the dead back to life - New York Post

As if the stress of senior year isnt enough of a headache, Michael Vega began his final chapter of high school with a serious concussion.

A soccer injury in May 2016 had mandated three months recovery time, stealing a summer of soccer training from the North Forsyth graduate.

It hit me hard that I couldnt play, coming in with a big concussion, said Vega, a two-time all-conference award recipient. I had to jump right back into it.

Vega, 17, was cleared to play in the final round of the Forsyth Cup last year, helping his team secure a victory in the championship round for the second year in a row, making school history.

Vega, who spent three years on the varsity team, said one of his favorite high school moments was scoring the conference-winning goal against Asheboro High School as a sophomore.

It was a great experience; theres nothing like it, said Vega, who plays goalie and center back. I knew half the guys from growing up, so its hard to say good-bye.

While Vega said he will not play soccer in college, he will continue playing with the Hispanic League.

Graduation is bittersweet, but Vega said he is glad to have AP Biology and AP Chemistry behind him and is applying to Forsyth Tech to study biotechnology.

Ive learned to surround myself with the right people and never give up, Vega said. Im excited for graduation.

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North Forsyth grad plans to study biotechnology - Winston-Salem Journal

AbbVie Inc said on Wednesday its oral rheumatoid arthritis drug succeeded in a late-stage study on patients who had not adequately responded to standard treatments.

The drug, upadacitinib, is a once-daily pill belonging to a class of drugs known as JAK inhibitors, which block inflammation-causing enzymes called Janus kinases.

Pfizer Inc's Xeljanz is the only U.S.-approved JAK inhibitor for rheumatoid arthritis a chronic inflammatory disease in which the immune system attacks tissues in the joints, affecting more than 23 million people.

AbbVie's success comes almost two months after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected baricitinib, a rival JAK inhibitor developed by Eli Lilly and Co and Incyte Corp.

If approved, upadacitinib could help AbbVie lower its reliance on its flagship rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira the world's top selling medicine that will soon face competition from biosimilars in the United States.

AbbVie's shares were up 1.4 percent at $68.81 on Wednesday afternoon. They earlier hit a session high of $69.32, their highest since August 2015.

In AbbVie's 12-week study on upadacitinib, two doses of the drug were tested against a placebo on patients with moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis.

AbbVie said 64 percent of patients given a 15-milligram dose and 66 percent of patients given a 30-mg dose experienced a 20 percent reduction in symptoms, measured using a commonly used rheumatoid arthritis scale.

The company said only 36 percent of patients given a placebo experienced a comparable drop in symptoms, meaning upadacitinib cleared the trial the first of six testing the drug on patients with various cases of rheumatoid arthritis.

As data from the other trials comes in, upadacitinib might prove to be more effective than Lilly and Incyte's baricitinib, Jefferies analyst Jeffrey Holford said.

Rheumatoid arthritis is currently treated with older drugs such as methotrexate, Pfizer's JAK inhibitor Xeljanz as well as injected biologics such as Amgen Inc's Enbrel and AbbVie's Humira.

Humira generated more than $16 billion in sales last year, but competition is looming. AbbVie is trying to block the launch of an FDA-approved biosimilar, made by Amgen, arguing that its patents on Humira offered protection until at least 2022.

AbbVie is also evaluating upadacitinib for several other autoimmune conditions, including psoriatic arthritis, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

Holford estimated peak sales of $3.5 billion for the drug across all diseases. Pfizer's Xeljanz generated sales of $927 million last year.

2017 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.

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Rheumatoid Arthritis Drug Succeeds in Trial - Newsmax

Half of the people who have rheumatoid arthritis have to change jobs, and more than one in 10haveto quit work because of the debilitating condition, it has emerged

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that attacks the cells lining a bodys joints causing them to become swollen, stiff, and painful.

Arthritis Ireland has published research showing how the lives of people are impacted by rheumatoid arthritis. Those who participated in the survey were, on average, diagnosed at about 40 years of age and had the disease for 10 years.

It shows that 50% of people surveyed had to change jobs; 17% had to retire from work, and 13% were forced to quit because of their condition.

Almost one in four (24%) reduced their working hours.

Around 40,000 people in Ireland have rheumatoid arthritis, and most (70%) are women.

There is no cure for rheumatoid arthritis, but early diagnosis and appropriate treatment allows many people with the condition to reduce the number of flare-ups, lead full lives, and remain at work.

Almost 200 people with rheumatoid arthritis who are being treated by a rheumatologist were included in the Harris Poll online survey for Pfizer.

The study is part of the drug companys initiative to elevate the role of the patient in the successful management of the disease.

In addition to the impact on career, most (88%) people with rheumatoid arthritis worry about the disease getting worse 65% fear they will become disabled, and 64% are concerned about the damage caused to their joints.

More than three quarters (77%) of those surveyed are currently taking prescription medicines but wish they did not have to take so many drugs.

Three out of four (76%) sometimes worry that their medication will fail and more than half (52%) wish they had more medication options.

Seven out of 10 (69%) worry that rheumatoid arthritis will negatively affect their quality of life and most (64%) fear they will not be able to live independently.

Consultant rheumatologist, Prof Doug Veale, said the research is incredibly insightful and a welcome development in identifying the needs of patients.

Arthritis Irelands head of services, Grinne OLeary, said the survey shows that quality of life is a primary concern for people with rheumatoid arthritis.

This new research identifies the need for greater services around the country to assist those with rheumatoid arthritis to live a normal, active live and to empower them to work with their specialist to manage the condition.

Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved

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One in 10 arthritis sufferers quit work - Irish Examiner

fox5sandiego.com

Abused pup receives cutting-edge stem cell therapy | fox5sandiego ... fox5sandiego.com The abused orphan pup "Dwyane" who has severe disfigurements is on the road to recovery due to stem cell therapy. by Vet Stem, out of Poway. Severely abused dog receives stem cell therapy - CBS News 8 - San ...CBS 8 San Diego all 2 news articles »

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Abused pup receives cutting-edge stem cell therapy | fox5sandiego ... - fox5sandiego.com

For any given medical problem, it seems, theres a research team trying to use stem cells to find a solutionBut in one study expected to launch later this year, scientists hope to use stem cells in a new, highly controversial way to reverse death.

The idea of the trial, run by Philadelphia-based Bioquark, is to inject stem cells into the spinal cords of people who have been declared clinically brain-dead. The subjects will also receive an injected protein blend, electrical nerve stimulation, and laser therapy directed at the brain.

The ultimate goal: to grow new neurons and spur them to connect to each other, and thereby bring the brain back to life.

This isnt the first start for the trial. The study launched in Rudrapur, India, in April 2016 but it never enrolled any patients. Regulators shut the study down in November 2016 becauseIndias Drug Controller General hadnt cleared it.

Now, the company is in the final stages of finding a new location to host trials. The company will announce a trial in Latin America in coming months.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Resurrected: A controversial trial to bring the dead back to life plans a restart

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Back to life: Can controversial stem cell treatment revive brain-dead patients? - Genetic Literacy Project

Bioquark, a life science company, hopes to bring people declared as clinically brain-dead back to life through stem cells. Trials will be initiating soon.

With rapid increases in technology from human head transplants to reversing symptoms of ageing, researchers are surely setting high goals.

With their latest discovery of reversing death, the Philadelphia-based biotech company is supposed to work on its project by the end of this year.

Though the trials were expected to begin in 2016 in India, the regulators had it shut down. Now, the researchers plan on conducting considerably similar plan and will enroll 20 patients who will go through different treatments.

With the stem cells being cut off from the patients own fat or blood, a stem cell injection will be given to the patients first. Then, a protein blend will be injected into the spinal cord which is supposed to advance new neuron growth. With the intention of promoting neuron communications, the laser therapy and nerve stimulation will be conducted next for another 15 days, reported Futurism.

In the mean time, the researchers will examine behavior and EEGs both to see any indications of the treatment causing any alterations.

However, a few researchers have raised questions regarding the informed consent from the patients. They question about how will the researchers go forth with their trails and how would they complete the paperwork considering that the patients is already brain dead?

Another question raised was what if the brain activity came back and what would be the patients mental state? And what could be the possible outcomes other than extreme brain damage?

According to Science Alert, back in 2016, Stat News reported neurologist Ariane Lewis and bioethicist Arthur Caplan stated in Critical Care the trail as dubious, has no scientific foundation and suffers from an at best, ethically questionable, and at worst, outright unethical nature.

Researchers also doubt the companys techniques and believe there is no way this technique could work on someone who is brain-dead.

Researchers claim, The technique relies on there being a functional brain stem one of the structures that most motor neurons go through before connecting with the cortex proper. If there's no functional brain stem, then it can't work.

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American company brings dead people back to life - Business Recorder (press release) (registration) (blog)

June 8, 2017 This image shows human heart muscle cells growing in the 3D tissue structure. The cells have been stained with fluorescent molecules to identify the nuclei in blue, and cardiac-specific protein, in green. Credit: Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore

Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) of A*STAR have engineered a three-dimensional heart tissue from human stem cells to test the safety and efficacy of new drugs on the heart.

"Cardiotoxicity, which can lead to heart failure and even death, is a major cause of drug withdrawal from the market. Antibiotics, anticancer and antidiabetic medications can have unanticipated side effects for the heart. So it is important to test as early as possible whether a newly developed drug is safe for human use. However, cardiotoxicity is difficult to predict in the early stages of drug development," said Professor Jackie Y. Ying, Executive Director at IBN.

A big part of the problem is the use of animals or animal-derived cells in preclinical cardiotoxicity studies due to the limited availability of human heart muscle cells. Substantial genetic and cardiac differences exist between animals and humans. There have been a large number of cases whereby the tests failed to detect cardiovascular toxicity when moving from animal studies to human clinical trials.

Existing screening methods based on 2-D cardiac structure cannot accurately predict drug toxicity, while the currently available 3-D structures for screening are difficult to fabricate in the quantities needed for commercial application.

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To solve this problem, the IBN research team fabricated their 3-D heart tissue from cellular self-assembly of heart muscle cells grown from human induced pluripotent stem cells. They also developed a fluorescence labelling technology to monitor changes in beating rate using a real-time video recording system. The new heart tissue exhibited more cardiac-specific genes, stronger contraction and higher beating rate compared to cells in a 2-D structure.

"Using the 3-D heart tissue, we were able to correctly predict cardiotoxic effects based on changes in the beating rate, even when these were not detected by conventional tests. The method is simple and suitable for large-scale assessment of drug side effects. It could also be used to design personalized therapy using a patient's own cells," said lead researcher Dr Andrew Wan, who is Team Leader and Principal Research Scientist at IBN.

The researchers have filed a patent on their human heart tissue model, and hope to work with clinicians and pharmaceutical companies to bring this technology to market.

This finding was reported recently in the Biofabrication journal.

Explore further: Stem cell-based screening methods may predict heart-related side effects of drugs

More information: Hong Fang Lu et al. Engineering a functional three-dimensional human cardiac tissue model for drug toxicity screening, Biofabrication (2017). DOI: 10.1088/1758-5090/aa6c3a

Coaxing stem cells from patients to become heart cells may help clinicians personalize drug treatments and prevent heart-related toxicity.

Scientists at The University of Queensland have taken a significant step forward in cardiac disease research by creating a functional 'beating' human heart muscle from stem cells.

Matters of the heart can be complicated, but York University scientists have found a way to create 3D heart tissue that beats in synchronized harmony, like a heart in love, that will lead to better understanding of cardiac ...

A team of biomedical engineering researchers, led by the University of Minnesota, has created a revolutionary 3D-bioprinted patch that can help heal scarred heart tissue after a heart attack. The discovery is a major step ...

Researchers have grown heart tissue by seeding a mix of human cells onto a 1-micron-resolution scaffold made with a 3-D printer. The cells organized themselves in the scaffold to create engineered heart tissue that beats ...

Drexel University and Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have discovered how the Rad52 protein is a crucial player in RNA-dependent DNA repair. The results of their study, published today in Molecular Cell, reveal ...

Yale scientists produced increased grooming behavior in mice that may model tics in Tourette syndrome and discovered these behaviors vanish when histaminea neurotransmitter most commonly associated with allergiesis ...

Some bodily activities, sleeping, for instance, mostly occur once every 24 hours; they follow a circadian rhythm. Other bodily functions, such as body temperature, cognitive performance and blood pressure, present an additional ...

Myelomeningocele is a severe congenital defect in which the backbone and spinal canal do not close before birth, putting those affected at risk of lifelong neurological problems. In a preclinical study published June 6th ...

Delivering drugs to the brain is no easy task. The blood-brain barrier -a protective sheath of tissue that shields the brain from harmful chemicals and invaders - cannot be penetrated by most therapeutics that are injected ...

A vaccine developed at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) to block the "high" of heroin has proven effective in non-human primates. This is the first vaccine against an opioid to pass this stage of preclinical testing.

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Human heart tissue grown from stem cells improves drug testing - Medical Xpress

Jaap Bosman

Depending on the market, commoditized work can be quite complex. For instance, project finance is one area of specialization for which you need a lot of expert knowledge and experience. The problem is that in a sophisticated market like New York or London, there are just too many good project finance lawyers around who can do the work perfectly well. Hence, in those markets all but the most complex or innovative project finance matters will be considered commoditized.

To better understand lets look at the definition of commoditization in the legal market:

Commoditization is when for a particular matter, the client can choose between multiple lawyers and multiple law firms without sacrificing any aspect of quality. In other words, when from the clients perspective, the process and the final product are the same.

It is important to understand that commoditization is not measured from the law firms perspective. It is the client who decides. It is also important to understand that commoditization is black or white. A certain legal service or product is either commoditized or not. The consequence of commoditization is ultimately, and unavoidably, pressure on price. If everything else is equal and the client has a choice, price will become the decisive factor.

When I discuss the topic of commoditization with lawyers, the first response is always: There might be commoditization in the market, but what I do is 100 percent bespoke.. This phenomenon is called commoditization blindness. The second-most common remark is that the lawyer has a unique and trusted relationship with the clienta relationship that is so strong and special that price alone will never destroy it. Who am I to judge this? So I spoke to a general counsel from a sizable international company and asked him how often he worked with lawyer that he did not like.

The answer did not come as a surprise. Almost all of the lawyers he had worked with during his long career were highly qualified people who did their best to deliver excellent client service and were very pleasant to work with. Basically, all lawyers were equally nice and managed to build a trusted relationship pretty fast. We might think our relationship with our client is unique, but form the clients perspective, even that unique relationship they can get elsewhere.

Commoditization has become a fact of life for law firms, and commoditization will lead to pressure on price. Because of its eroding effect on profit, commoditization might well be the single-most disruptive factor in the legal sector today. To fully grasp the seriousness of this effect, we need to first fully understand a law firms financial model. The basics are simple: revenue minus costs equals profit. Since profit is distributed amongst the partners, there is a direct linear relationship between profit and partner compensation.

The important thing to understand here is the fixed nature of the costs. For a law firm, fixed elements like salaries, rent, insurance and IT can make up to 90 percent of all costs. All of these are invariable in the short term. In most markets, cost will be about 65 percent of budget revenue. So the equation would look like the accompanying chart. As you can see, a 10 percent drop in revenue will result in a 30 percent drop in profit. This leveraged effect is one of the main reasons why commoditization is so dangerous for law firms.

To make things worse and even more threatening, this effect will be amplified by todays increased partner mobility. Loyalty between partners and their firms is at an historic low, and many partners feel free to pick up their books of business and move to another firman event that could easily be triggered by profits declining at the firm they are with. When the most profitable partners leave the firm, taking their books of business, revenue again drops while costs remain the same (salaries, housing, insurance, IT, etc.). Consequently, for the remaining partners, profit will drop even further. This could easily lead to an unstoppable downward spiral with more and more partners leaving.

Eventually this could even lead to the collapse of the firm as we have seen at SJ Berwin, the European branch of King and Wood Mallesons at the end of 2016.

Commoditization will quickly erode profitability. Understanding and accepting the concept of commoditization will help us to understand that in order to maintain our profitability, we will need to adapt our business model. There are several ways to do that. The traditional business model is based on the markup we make on our associates and on time spent. So if a client is billed $3,000 for an associate to complete a task, the profit for the firm will be (based on industry average) $1,000. What if we replace half of what the associate did by a computer, and at the same time charge the client 30 percent less? The calculation will now look more like this: Revenue $2,000, cost $1,000 (only 50 percent time of the associates time spent), profit still $1,000.

Making lawyers more efficient with the help of technology is only one of the solutions. Other measures include reducing the number of equity partners, making costs more flexible, or making the services more valuable though brand building and positioning.

But whatever the solution, it all starts with accepting the situation. We need to stop sticking our heads in the sand and stop believing that what we do is so unique that it cannot be done equally well in every aspect by another lawyer or another firm. As my friend the general counsel said: Typically, all lawyers to a pretty good job and are pleasurable to work with.

Jaap Bosman is a leading strategy consultant, investor and one of the founding partners of TGO Consulting, a boutique consultancy focusing on the legal sector operating from New York, The Hague and Hong Kong. In 2015 he published Death of a Law Firm, recently translated into Chinese. Jaap is a regular speaker on the future of the legal sector.

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Do you suffer from 'commoditization blindness'? If others can do your work for less, open your eyes - ABA Journal

The global biotechnology services outsourcing market is expected to reach USD 92.9 billion by 2025

Pharmaceutical industry has been adaptive of the function of outsourcing certain clinical and corporate functions as early as 2002. Among the services outsourced, clinical trial management and contract manufacturing were the forerunners. For instance, Johnson & Johnson was the first pharmaceutical company to outsource its applications development and maintenance (ADM).

In 2015, over USD 50.0 billion was spent on pharmaceutical R&D activities majorly on oncology, diabetes, and autoimmune therapy classes, which is expected to propel the biotechnology services outsourcing market growth over the forecast period.

Shrinking profit margins coupled with rising competition in the market space, and augmenting regulatory burden are other vital impact rendering factors. The pharmaceutical services outsourcing market is expected to register growth at a CAGR of 8.7% during the forecast period. On the other hand, pending immigration legislations in the U.S. may hinder business economics and outsourcing risks.

Pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries in Europe are significantly investing in R&D in the recent year owing to rising demand for advanced medicines. This may be attributed to increasing aging population, incidence of chronic diseases, and communicable diseases.

Further key findings from the study suggest:

Key Topics Covered:

1 Research Methodology

2 Executive Summary

3 Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology Services Outsourcing Market Variables, Trends, & Scope 3.8 Service pricing analysis

4 Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology Services Outsourcing Market: Service Estimates & Trend Analysis 4.1 Pharmaceutical/biotechnology services outsourcing market: Service movement analysis 4.2 Consulting services 4.2.2 Regulatory compliance 4.2.3 Remediation 4.2.4 Quality management 4.2.5 Other 4.3 Auditing & assessment 4.4 Regulatory affairs services 4.4.2 Clinical trial applications & product registration 4.4.3 Regulatory writing & publishing 4.4.4 Legal representation 4.4.5 Other 4.5 Product maintenance services 4.6 Product design & development 4.7 Product testing & validation 4.8 Training & education 4.9 Other services

5 Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology Services Outsourcing Market: Regional Estimates & Trend Analysis

6 Competitive Landscape

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5b9f3q/biotechnologyphar

Media Contact:

Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com

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SOURCE Research and Markets

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Global $92.9 Billion Biotechnology/Pharmaceutical Services Outsourcing Market Analysis, By Service And Segment ... - PR Newswire (press release)

Stephens Inc. AR Acquires 1166 Shares of iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (IBB) The Cerbat Gem iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index logo Stephens Inc. AR raised its stake in shares of iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (NASDAQ:IBB) by 74.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission ... Vetr Inc. Lowers iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (IBB) to HoldSports Perspectives Bellevue Group AG Has $3.52 Million Stake in iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (IBB)Transcript Daily Davidson & Garrard Inc. Has $280000 Stake in iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (IBB)Markets Daily BBNS -Seeking Alpha all 9 news articles »

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Stephens Inc. AR Acquires 1166 Shares of iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (IBB) - The Cerbat Gem

Rheumatoid arthritis is a long-term condition that causes pain, swelling and stiffness in the joints and mainly affects the hands feet and wrists.

AbbVie Inc, pharmaceutical company, said its oral rheumatoid arthritis drug succeeded in a study on patients who had not adequately responded to standard treatments.

The drug, upadacitinib, is a once-daily pill which is a JAK inhibitor, a type of drug which which block inflammation-causing enzymes called Janus kinases.

Participants in the study were treated for 12 weeks with the drug.

GETTY

Results showed that after 12 weeks of treatment, both doses of upadacitinib (15 mg and 30 mg) met the study's primary endpoints of ACR20 - criteria set by the American College of Rheumatology for medication, and low disease activity.

"We are excited by these promising results for upadacitinib. Selective inhibition of the JAK1 pathway may offer a novel treatment for rheumatoid arthritis patients who do not adequately respond to conventional therapies," said Michael Severino, executive vice president, research and development and chief scientific officer, AbbVie.

"We are especially encouraged by the results on the more stringent measures of efficacy, such as ACR70, low disease activity and clinical remission.

We look forward to seeing the full results from our Phase 3 program.

GETTY

AbbVie's longstanding leadership in the treatment of immune-mediated diseases provides an opportunity to build upon our understanding and develop innovative therapies to address unmet patient needs."

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition, which means it is caused by the immune system attacking healthy body tissue - such as the lining go the joints.

It causes joints to become sore and inflamed and damages bones, cartilage, tendons and ligaments.

If the condition isn't treated, these chemicals gradually cause the joint to lose its shape and alignment.

Getty

1 of 12

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We are excited by these promising results for upadacitinib

Treatment for the condition can help reduce inflammation in the joints, slow damage and relieve pain.

The new treatment has been described as encouraging by Professor Gerd Burmeister, from the department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Charit Berlin.

He said: Achieving the target of low disease activity in nearly half of the patients by 12 weeks and doing so at both high and low dose levels is encouraging.

Current treatment recommendations recognise the importance of this clinical target for patients, as achieving low disease activity has remained an unmet need in rheumatoid arthritis."

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New drug could fight rheumatoid arthritis symptoms - 'exciting' results for patients - Express.co.uk

AbbVie Inc said on Wednesday its oral rheumatoid arthritis drug succeeded in a late-stage study on patients who had not adequately responded to standard treatments.

The drug, upadacitinib, is a once-daily pill belonging to a class of drugs known as JAK inhibitors, which block inflammation-causing enzymes called Janus kinases.

Pfizer Inc's Xeljanz is the only U.S.-approved JAK inhibitor for rheumatoid arthritis a chronic inflammatory disease in which the immune system attacks tissues in the joints, affecting more than 23 million people.

AbbVie's success comes almost two months after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected baricitinib, a rival JAK inhibitor developed by Eli Lilly and Co and Incyte Corp.

If approved, upadacitinib could help AbbVie lower its reliance on its flagship rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira the world's top selling medicine that will soon face competition from biosimilars in the United States.

AbbVie's shares were up 1.4 percent at $68.81 on Wednesday afternoon. They earlier hit a session high of $69.32, their highest since August 2015.

In AbbVie's 12-week study on upadacitinib, two doses of the drug were tested against a placebo on patients with moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis.

AbbVie said 64 percent of patients given a 15-milligram dose and 66 percent of patients given a 30-mg dose experienced a 20 percent reduction in symptoms, measured using a commonly used rheumatoid arthritis scale.

The company said only 36 percent of patients given a placebo experienced a comparable drop in symptoms, meaning upadacitinib cleared the trial the first of six testing the drug on patients with various cases of rheumatoid arthritis.

As data from the other trials comes in, upadacitinib might prove to be more effective than Lilly and Incyte's baricitinib, Jefferies analyst Jeffrey Holford said.

Rheumatoid arthritis is currently treated with older drugs such as methotrexate, Pfizer's JAK inhibitor Xeljanz as well as injected biologics such as Amgen Inc's Enbrel and AbbVie's Humira.

Humira generated more than $16 billion in sales last year, but competition is looming. AbbVie is trying to block the launch of an FDA-approved biosimilar, made by Amgen, arguing that its patents on Humira offered protection until at least 2022.

AbbVie is also evaluating upadacitinib for several other autoimmune conditions, including psoriatic arthritis, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

Holford estimated peak sales of $3.5 billion for the drug across all diseases. Pfizer's Xeljanz generated sales of $927 million last year.

(This story corrects paragraph 3 to clarify that Xeljanz is the only U.S.-approved JAK inhibitor.)

(Reporting by Divya Grover in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Natalie Grover; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar and by Savio D'Souza)

GENEVA The number of suspected cholera cases in war-torn Yemen has risen to more than 100,000 since an outbreak began on April 27, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

BRUSSELS The European Union's top court barred Germany's Dextro Energy on Thursday from making claims about the health benefits of glucose contained in its products, which include Dextrose tablets.

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AbbVie's rheumatoid arthritis drug succeeds in late-stage trial - Reuters

A Philadelphia-based company, Bioquark, has revealed it is working on a new stem cell therapy that will attempt to revive brain-dead people. The first test is scheduled to begin this year in an undisclosed location in Latin America, the Daily Mail reported.

Ira Pastor, CEO of Bioquarkrevealed his company has developed a series of injections that are capable of rebooting the human brain. He also mentioned that the company aims to test these injections on humans this year, the report added.

Pastor further said his company does not plan to conduct thesetests on animals.

Read:How Do You Know When Someone Is Dead? Experts Question Guidelines To Determine Death

At first, Pastor along with his co-worker Himanshu Bansal had planned to conduct this experiment in a remote part of India. For this, they had gathered 20 subjects. But, before they couldstart with their experiment,it was blocked by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) without stating a proper reason. The pair was asked to conduct their research elsewhere, after which they decided to go ahead with their research in Latin America, the report stated.

In the first phase of the experiment named First In Human Neuro-Regeneration & Neuro-Reanimation, scientists will first collect stem cells from the subjects blood or fat and then inject it back into their body.

The next step would be injecting a dose of peptides into the subjects spinal cord. A peptide is a compound consisting of two or more amino acids linked in a chain. Molecules small enough to be synthesized from the constituent amino acids are, by convention, called peptides.

According to scientists, this would speed up the growth of new neurons in clinically brain-dead patients.

The subject would then be kept under observation for a period of 15 days during which they will be subjected to nerve stimulation involving laser technology and median nerve stimulation. Nerve stimulation is the process of stimulating nerves for therapeutic purposes using electric current produced by a device.

During this simulation process, the subject will constantly be monitored using MRI scans for any signs of life.

The mission of the Project is to focus on clinical research in the state of brain death, or irreversible coma, in subjects who have recently met the Uniform Determination of Death Act criteria, but who are still on cardiopulmonary or trophic support a classification in many countries around the world known as a "living cadaver, Pastor had said last year.

However, Pastor's idea was not welcomed by all medical experts. There is no way this technique could work on someone who is brain-dead. The technique relies on there being a functional brain stem one of the structures that most motor neurons go through before connecting with the cortex proper, Dr. Ed Cooper, who has studied and authored several studies on brain stimulation, told Stat News.

If there's no functional brain stem, then it can't work, he further said.

Meanwhile, several questions related to the research have surfaced, one of them being how do researchers complete paperwork for the experiment when the subject is clinically dead? Or should families of the subjects hope for an incredibly long-shot cure? Although the answers to these questions are far off, Pastorsaid:While the complete recovery in such patients is indeed a long term vision of ours and a possibility that we foresee with continued work along this path, it is not the core focus or primary endpoint of this first protocol.

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Can We Cheat Death? US Firm Aims To Resurrect Brain-Dead ... - International Business Times

Thy dead shall live, my dead bodies shall ariseawake and sing, ye that dwell in the dustfor Thy dew is as the dew of light, and the earth shall bring to life the shades. Isaiah 26:19 (The Israel Bible)

(Shutterstock)

A biomedical company is set to begin experiments using stem cells to revive brain dead patients in a manner that troubles theologians, who question whether this attempt to preempt the Messianic resurrection of the dead should be permitted. One prominent rabbi takes it even further, pointing out the clear and obvious flaw that destines the project to failure.

Bioquark, a biomedical startup based in Philadelphia, recently announced that they will begin experiments later this year on patients who have been declared clinically brain dead. The trial will involve a multi-pronged approach, involving injecting stem cells and peptides into the spinal cords, electrical nerve stimulation, and laser therapy. The researchers hope this will grow new neurons and spur them to connect to each other, bringing the brain back to life.

If they succeed, they will be violating a sacred Biblical tenet, Rabbi Moshe Avraham Halperin from the Science and Technology Torah Law Institute, which investigates modern technology within a religious Jewish framework, told Breaking Israel News.

If they are able to revive a person from total brain death, it will be considered techiyat hamaytim (resurrection of the dead), said Rabbi Halperin. Torah law puts limits on man, forbidding him from some areas which are strictly divine. Reviving the dead is one of them.

The study is not only problematic for theologians. It raises many issues in medical ethics. A similar experiment led by Bioquark in India in 2016 was not cleared by Indias Drug Controller General. Amar Jesani, editor of the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics in Mumbai, cautioned that even partial success would traumatize families that had come to terms with a situation they believed irreversible. In point of fact, no families permitted their loved ones to be part of the experiment.

Bioquark plans to try again later this year in an undisclosed location in Latin America. If successful, the experiment would be a medical breakthrough bordering on a miracle. A survey published in 2010 that described cases covering 13 years found that there has never been a single case of a person regaining brain function after all the criteria determining full brain death have been met.

This is like using genetics to create a new form of life, said Rabbi Halperin. There are realms that are strictly divine. Resurrection of the dead is clearly possible. It is definitely going to happen after the Messiah, but it restricted to God.

Rabbi Yosef Berger,rabbi of King Davids Tomb on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, stated that not only was the experiment forbidden, but it had no chance of success. He cited the 13 Principles of Faith established by Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, the prominent 12th century Torah authority known by the acronym Rambam. The last of his principles states, I believe by complete faith that there will be a resurrection of the dead at the time that will be pleasing before the Creator.

The Rambam states that we must believe that the resurrection of the dead will happen when it is Gods will for it to take place and at no other time, Rabbi Berger stressed to Breaking Israel News. Not only does this effort by scientists go against this principle of faith, but we know that true resurrection can only happen by Divine will.

Resurrection of the dead is described in depth, and it is proof of Gods rule over the physical world. But it is also stated that before the Messiah, there is no return from the grave.

He added that the phenomenon of death will vanish after the resurrection of the dead, citing the book of Daniel.

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to reproaches and everlasting abhorrence. Daniel 12:2

The scientists believe they are masters over life and death, said Rabbi Berger. Just as they cannot create eternal life, they will find that they are not masters over death. For that, there is only One.

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Is New Scientific Trial to Revive the Dead a Threat to God's Final Resurrection of Believers? - Breaking Israel News

Over time, high blood sugar levels from diabetes lead to damage of the retina, the layer on the back of the eye that captures images and sends them as nerve signals to the brain. Whether diabetic retinopathy develops depends in part on how high blood sugar levels have been and how long they have been above a target range. Other things that may increase your risk for diabetic retinopathy include high blood pressure, pregnancy, a family history of the condition, kidney disease, high cholesterol, and whether you smoke.

The early stages of retinal damage are called nonproliferative retinopathy. First, tiny blood vessels called capillaries in the retina develop weakened areas in their walls called microaneurysms. When red blood cells escape through these weakened walls, tiny amounts of bleeding (hemorrhages) become visible when the retina is viewed through an instrument called an ophthalmoscope. To clearly see your retina, the ophthalmologist will enlarge (dilate) your pupils (which serve as a window to the back of your eye) and may also use a special dye to help identify blood vessels that may be leaking.

Fluid from the blood also escapes, leading to yellowish "hard exudates." This type of damage does not cause problems with vision unless some of the leaking fluid is near the macula. (The macula is the area of the retina that is responsible for central vision.) An ophthalmologist who specializes in the treatment of retinal problems will attempt to stop blood leakage by using a laser in a process called photocoagulation. By using an appropriately selected laser, your ophthalmologist may seal the small blood vessels that can leak when a person has nonproliferative and proliferative retinopathy. More recently, ophthalmologists have been using injectable medicines to treat retinal leakage.

If fluid leaks out near the macula, it can disrupt vision. This is called macular edema. As retinopathy becomes more severe, parts of the abnormal capillaries can become closed off. This kills parts of the retina that the capillaries previously supplied with blood. These tiny damaged parts of the retina are called "cotton wool" spots and can be seen using an ophthalmoscope.

The later stages of retinal injury are called proliferative retinopathy, because new fragile blood vessels grow to supply the damaged areas of the retina. These new blood vessels can bleed into the vitreous gel, the gel-filled area in front of the retina. Over time, scar tissue that forms from bleeding can cause the retina to detach from the wall of the eye (retinal detachment) and cause loss of vision.

Severe proliferative retinopathy may be treated with laser surgery in order to save vision. Your eye doctor may use more aggressive laser therapy, called scatter (pan-retinal) photocoagulation. This process is more thorough than that used in localized photocoagulation. And it may require more individual treatments. But it allows your doctor to minimize the growth of new blood vessels across the back of your retina. Severe proliferative retinopathy may also be treated with medicines that slow the growth of abnormal blood vessels in the retina. The growth of these vessels is triggered by a protein called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Anti-VEGF medicines, such as ranibizumab (Lucentis), block the effects of VEGF.

Laser treatments may not always work in treating proliferative retinopathy. If you have retinal detachment or hemorrhages that cannot be repaired, your retinal specialist will need to use a surgical technique to try to restore your vision. This surgical technique, called pars plana vitrectomy, attempts to repair your retina and reduce hemorrhaging. Like many surgical techniques, it has several risks and is much more likely to damage your eye than laser surgery.

People who have diabetes are also at risk for other problems, such as cataracts and glaucoma, that damage vision. They are also at risk for a severe form of glaucoma called neovascular glaucoma. Cataracts are frequently caused by a lifetime of sun exposure, and diabetes speeds up their formation.

The following table outlines the major causes of blindness in people who have diabetes.

Condition

How it causes vision loss

Preventive measures

If you notice problems with your vision, you should immediately seek medical evaluation by an ophthalmologist. Regular eye exams are meant to detect any retinopathy at the nonproliferative stage, where it may still be treated with a good chance of success.

If nonproliferative retinopathy is not detected and treated early, it may progress to proliferative retinopathy. During proliferative retinopathy, your body tries to correct the microaneurysms. To replace blood vessels that have broken or leaked, new blood vessels begin to form. These blood vessels are fragile and may break easily, causing bleeding into the middle of the eye and clouding vision. They also form scar tissue that can pull on the retina and cause the retina to detach from the wall of the eye.

With aggressive management of your condition-keeping your blood sugar in your target range and controlling blood pressure-along with regular screening of your vision, you may be able to prevent or delay blindness.

WebMD Medical Reference from Healthwise

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How Diabetes Causes Blindness-Topic Overview - WebMD

CIRM funds many projects seeking to better understand diseases of blindness and to translate those discoveries into new therapies.

Nearly a million Americans are blind, with another 2.4 million suffering significant visual impairment. While there are several causes of blindness, the leading cause of all visual impairment is age-related macular degeneration, which affects 1.7 million Americans.

Californias stem cell agency funds research into potential therapies for three of the causes of blindness. All the research teams are seeking to use various forms of stem cells to rescue or replace cells in the eye damaged or threatened by the diseases. Several groups are working on ways to restore vision for people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Other projects are looking to preserve vision in patients with retinitis pigmentosa, and to restore clarity to the surface of eyes impacted by corneal disease.

In AMD the layer of cells that support the photoreceptors is destroyed. Without this support system, the photoreceptors, the cells that actually allow us to sense light start to malfunction. CIRM-funded teams are looking at various methods of replacing this layer of support cells called RPE (retinal pigment epithelial) cells. Some are using embryonic stem cells as a starting point to generate new RPE cells. Others are using stem cells obtained by reprogramming adult cells to be like embryonic cells, which could potentially come from the patients themselves.

Retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited and progressive vision loss that leaves most patients legally blind by mid-life, directly destroys the photoreceptors. CIRM-funded researchers are seeking to use stem cells to rescue the receptors from further damage and potentially replace them with new ones.

The cornea, the outer surface of the eye, is constantly refreshed by stem cells that reside in neighboring tissue. But some people just dont have enough of these stem cells, called Limbal stem cells, to make enough new cornea cells. CIRM-funded researcher are trying to correct this condition, limbal stem cell deficiency, by retrieving the few existing limbal stem cells, and using various techniques to expand them in the laboratory until there are enough cells to rebuild a healthy cornea.

Some projects we fund are trying to take promising therapies out of the laboratory and closer to being tested in people. These Disease Team Awards encourage the creation of teams that have both the scientific knowledge and business skills needed to produce therapies that can get approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be tested in people. In some cases, these awards also fund the early phase clinical trials to show that they are safe to use and, in some cases, show some signs of being effective.

This team is using embryonic stem cells to produce the support cells, or RPE cells, needed to replace those lost in AMD. Because these cells exist in a thin sheet in the back of the eye, they are assembling these sheets in the lab by growing the RPE cells on synthetic scaffolds. These sheets are then surgically implanted into the eye. They are testing the human embryonic stem cell-derived RPE cells in a Phase 1/2a clinical trial to treat the advanced dry form of AMD.

For retinitis pigmentosa, the team is using donor tissue to isolate cells that are part way down the path from neural stem cells to adult eye tissue. These retinal progenitor cells are grown in large quantities in the lab and then injected into the eye. The team suggests the cells could help in two ways. They may be able to protect the photoreceptors not yet damaged by the disease, and they may be able to form new photoreceptors to replace those already lost. The team is testing the safety of transplantinghuman retinal progenitor cells into patients with RP in a phase 1/2 clinical trial.

The same team from UC Irvine is now conducting a Phase 2b clinical trial for retinitis pigmentosa using the same stem cell derived retinal progenitor celltherapy. The trial, which is sponsored by the company jCyte, will test the treatment in a larger patient population to determine whether the treatment is effective at restoring some vision.After finishing patient enrollment, the team willconductpatient follow up studies and collectof all clinical outcome measures.

Total:

Find Out More: Stem Cell FAQ | Stem Cell Videos | What We Fund

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Blindness Fact Sheet | California's Stem Cell Agency

The Hindu

Saving three-month-old infant from blindness The Hindu Like blood pressure, every eye has intraocular pressure. In glaucoma, the watery fluid called aqueous humour flows into the eye, but does not exit. This increases the eye pressure and leads to blindness, says S.A. Hussain Naqvi, head of medical ... 2-month-old baby undergoes successful eye surgeryThe Hans India 2-month-old treated for rare glaucomaTimes of India all 4 news articles »

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Saving three-month-old infant from blindness - The Hindu