Growing old can hit you like a ton of bricks. One second you're young, vital, and resilient, then suddenly you slip and shatter your hip. Grappling with one's own mortality is truly terrifying. But a stem cell treatment meant to combat age-related frailty has shown marked success after two promising clinical trials involving elderly humans. The results illustrate a safe treatment that's effective in tackling aging factors. THE POWER OF MESENCHYMAL STEM CELLS At the heart of the potentially ground-breaking stem cell treatment are mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). MSCs can make several types of skeletal tissue cells, such as cartilage, bone, and fat. These 'adult' stem cells are multipotent, so they can produce more than one kind of specialized cell in the body. POSITIVE RESULTS, POSITIVE HEALTH FOR THE ELDERLY Both phases of the [...]

A Vancouver man is the first Canadian to receive an experimental stem-cell therapy aiming to reverse his Type 1 diabetes diagnosis. The untested stem cell treatment revolves around restoring the body's natural ability to produce insulin, researchers from the University of British Columbia announced this week. Until now, the stem cell therapy has only been tested in diabetic mice, to positive results. If the human trials yield similar findings, this new treatment could lead to the "potential reversal" of Type 1 diabetes, says Dr. David Thompson, principal investigator of the trial's Vancouver arm, and medical director of the Vancouver General Hospital Diabetes Centre. "This is basically what everybody has been waiting for." THE THERAPY ViaCyte, a San Diego biotechnology company, has been testing its new therapy at centres across North America, including Vancouver and Edmonton. Their process [...]

A team of biomedical engineers from Duke University have created muscle from non-muscle. They've engineered the first functioning human skeletal muscle from pluripotent stem cells (self-replicating cells, derived from the human embryos and fetal tissue). With more testing and research, scientists may discover how to grow an entire muscle starting from a single cell. THE ORIGIN STORY Duke's team made its first breakthrough in 2015, growing working, human muscle tissue from cells extracted during muscle biopsies. It began with a sample of human cells that progressed beyond stem cells, but still weren't muscle tissues. Engineers Nenad Bursac and Lauran Madden expanded these myogenic precursors by more than a 1000-fold, and then placed them into a 3D scaffolding. They filled the scaffolding with a nourishing gel, allowing them to form functioning muscle fibers. Madden put [...]

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder effecting 1 in 5,000 adolescent males in the U.S. As the most common fatal childhood genetic disease, DMD is best explained as a progressive muscle degeneration and weakness. An absence of dystrophin - a protein keeping muscle cells intact - causes DMD. It's found mostly in boys, starting between ages 3-5. Initially, DMD attacks hip, pelvic, thigh, and shoulder muscles. As it progresses, it spreads to the skeletal (voluntary) muscles in the arms, legs and trunk, often enlarging the calves. The heart and respiratory muscles are weakened during the early teens, leading to low life expectancies in those afflicted. While those with DMD usually don't survive beyond their teens, researchers from UCLA have found a way to isolate, mature, and transplant skeletal muscle cells created from [...]

There is convincing evidence that amniotic fluid often treated as medical waste can be a viable source of stem cells, and a means to advance cell therapy and regenerative medicine. In years past, once the fluid no longer surrounded a baby, it would be handled by hospital staff. Then it'd be stored and shipped to a processing center, shock frozen, and shock thawed, leaving no remaining living materials. But a team of scientists at Lund University in Sweden have developed a multi-step method, employing an innovative collection device, to safely harvest large quantities of cells. IT BEGINS WITH BABY STEPS Scientists have combined fluids from full-term caesarean section deliveries, and millions of caesarean sections, performed worldwide each year. The valuable stem cells and bioactive molecules surrounding babies were untapped resources of regeneration, but Lund's [...]