The journal Stem Cells has published an Open-Access review by the former NIH director, Mahendra Rao, MD, PhD, covering last month's "Adult Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Regenerative Medicine Conference" at the National Center for Regenerative Medicine in Ohio.
Another review with summaries of some of the individual talks as well as the history of the National Institute for Regenerative Medicine and Dr. Arnold Caplan's part in founding both the NIRM and Osiris, can be found at Medscape.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can be found in bone marrow and other organs. MSCs are proving to be multipotent, meaning that they can be induced to give rise to different types of cells.
Speakers at the conference included virtually every "big" name in stem cell research, including Dr. Rao, Caplan, Anthony Atala, Catherine Verfaille, and Paul Simmons. The program covered the history, basic science and techniques involved in harvesting and culturing mesenchymal stem cells. There were reports covering the multipotent nature of MSC's and some of the treatments and commercial applications that are in use or will soon be available. One company, Osiris, has been in phase III of some clinical trials of stem cells for treatment of heart disease, graft vs. host disease, Crohn's, and cartilage and tendon repair. Veterinarians are already using MSC's to treat horses and other animals.
Take a look at the last page of the review which contains a graphic covering the wide range of topics.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Rao: Adult Stem Cells "soon to be on the market"
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2 comments:
All of which the MSM will ignore because they're in thrall to ESCR.
The antichrist was supposed to actually produce the signs and wonders. Here he's getting by with just promising them, and gets treated as if he's making the blind see and the lame walk.
ESCR = contriversy = headlines = advertising.
ASCR = agreement = bordom
I still think both approaches are worth following. Even if ESCR doesn't lead to any treatments directly, mapping out the physical and chemical stimulus needed to prompt differentiation should yield a lot of usful data.
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