Global Stem Cells Group

IN-OFFICE STEM CELL PROCEDURE:  STEM CELL TRAINING INC.  ALLIANCE WITH FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY IN MANILA, PHILIPPINES ANNOUNCEMENT

Website  http://www.stemcelltraining.net

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 STEM CELL IS THE MOTHER OF ALL CELLS.  Also known as hematopoietic progenitor cell, it is primitive cell found in the bone marrow of the human body.  Interest on stem cells has been going on for about 40 years.  Research lab scientists are in constant search to discover the therapeutic potential of stem cells.

Stem cells are rare - fewer than 1 in 100,000 can be found in the bone marrow.  They also circulate in the peripheral blood, where they are rarer still.  When the stem cell receives the phone signal from somewhere inside the body, it divides, replicates, and produces daughter cells and differentiates to become whatever type of blood cell the body needs.  Blood cells are dying - the life span of red blood cells (RBCs) is 120 days, white blood cells (WBCs) are fighting infectious agents and the normally lonely platelets band together at the site of a cut to prevent uncontrollable bleeding by forming a clot.  Stem cells themselves create an endless supply of new cells.  The whole systemic process never stops.

Bone marrow transplant started in the early 1970s.  The once controversial experiment has become a standard therapy worldwide.  Physicians can treat blood disorder (sickle cell anemia), genetic diseases, immunodeficiencies, and a variety of cancer like breast cancer.

Sickle cell anemia is a genetic disorder found in black people that causes the bone marrow to produce blood cells that shape like a sickle when they lose oxygen.  Because of the malformation, the cells block blood vessels thus preventing the much needed oxygen in reaching the tissue.  In treatment, the bone marrow of the patient is destroyed and healthy stem cells from a bone marrow donor are transfused and travel to the patient's marrow where they set up shop to manufacture new healthy red blood cells.

In patient with breast cancer, stem cell transplantation therapy allow the patient to receive massive dose of chemotherapy or radiation.  Healthy stem cells collected earlier from the patient or a matched donor are transplanted into the patient where they begin to rebuild the bone marrow supply of fresh hematopoietic cells.

Collection techniques have included newer souces from umbilical cord blood, peripheral blood and human embryos.  In peripheral stem cell collection, the cells are collected by apheresis through a catheter placed in the patient's chest.  The procedure is similar to platelet collection although programmed to collect a different portion of the buffy coat.  After the blood is drawn, mononuclear white cells are separated out and the remaining blood is returned to the patient.  The apheresis procedure usually requires 3 to 4 hours per day with 12 liters of blood.  It is repeated on consecutive days until an adequate dose of monuclear cells is collected.  A sample is sent to the lab every day for cell count.  When the total number of cells reaches the target set by the physician, the patient's collection is complete.

In the automated CD34+ processing, the instrument uses monoclonal antibodies to separate stem cells from other cells.  Stem cells exhibit the antibody CD34 and the machine operates by selecting only cells that exhibit that antibody.  The advantage of this technology is that less DMSO is needed with fewer cells.

The solvent 10% dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) is the gold standard of cryopreservation.  The key factor in stem cell processing is cryopreservation by inserting a canister of stem cells into a liquid nitrogen storage tank (less than 120 C) equipped with a computer that allows the cells to freeze slowly while temperature falls 1 C per minute so that ice crystals do not form inside the cells, causing them to break.  There is a simplified technique using 6% hydroxyethyl starch (extracellular cryopectant) and 5% DMSO (intracellular cryopectant).  The bags containing the stem cells are placed in styrofoam plates and transferred to a freezer at -135 C temperature.  The procedure is not mechanically controlled and there is less waiting time.  When the patient is ready for transfusion, the cells are thawed quickly at the patient's bedside just like blood product.

Embryonic stem cells is at the moment a religious, ethical, and morally controversial issues.

Published  ALT MSN Group 2003
Web Page: Health & Technology

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The debate is over.  Embryonic Stem Cells (ESC) is proven to cause cancer cells in patients.  Surely, for the past 8 years under the Bush Administration, other scientific researchers in other countries did not stop pursuing Embryonic Stem Cells projects.  Indeed, I would be very, very surprise if they did not do so including all those cloning?!
Another thing that was proven to be is that Adult Stem Cells hold so much promise and effective in curing diseases.  What is so overhyped is the actor Michael J. Fox who has Parkinson's Disease (PD).  He said in one of his interviews let's leave out politics from religion or something to that effect.  Yet, he was the one politicizing! He's with the Kansas governor, he was in Congress testifying, he's all over the place! He and his bleeding heart sympathizers are so blinded and misguided by their crazy belief that ESC is the cure all for all diseases.  Are not there other alternatives?  The scientific world should open to other cures.
Like I said before in my previous musings -- the human body is made to self-destruct in one way or another -- there is no escaping!  I know from my own family's genetic make up that I'll have Alzheimer Disease (AD) by the time I'm 90 or 91 years old.  I read the hardworking researchers in the prestigious Mayo Clinic is making progress with AD.  I'm hoping by the time I get to that age they have found a cure for it.
Lastly, since Obama overturned Bush's funding policy on ESC, why should I, as an individual taxpayer, donate money then to  ESC research?  For me, the answer is NO.  Will I be able to see on the internet the list of university hospitals using tax funding for ESC?
Who wants to know?
I'd like to know!

Published 5/7/09 ALT MSN Group

Web Page: Health & Technology