Stem cell 'major discovery' claimed

An exciting development in the world of stem cells, created from blood with the potential for being used for many medical applications.

www.bbc.co.uk...

Stem cell researchers are heralding a "major scientific discovery", with the potential to start a new age of personalised medicine.

Scientists in Japan showed stem cells can now be made quickly just by dipping blood cells into acid.

Stem cells can transform into any tissue and are already being trialled for healing the eye, heart and brain.

The latest development, published in the journal Nature, could make the technology cheaper, faster and safer.

The human body is built of cells with a specific role - nerve cells, liver cells, muscle cells - and that role is fixed.

However, stem cells can become any other type of cell, and they have become a major field of research in medicine for their potential to regenerate the body.

Embryos are one, ethically charged, source of stem cells. Nobel prize winning research also showed that skin cells could be "genetically reprogrammed" to become stem cells (termed induced pluripotent stem cells).

Acid bath
Now a study shows that shocking blood cells with acid could also trigger the transformation into stem cells - this time termed STAP (stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency) cells.

Dr Haruko Obokata, from the Riken Centre for Developmental Biology in Japan, said she was "really surprised" that cells could respond to their environment in this way.

She added: "It's exciting to think about the new possibilities these findings offer us, not only in regenerative medicine, but cancer as well."

The breakthrough was achieved in mouse blood cells, but research is now taking place to achieve the same results with human blood.

Chris Mason, professor of regenerative medicine at University College London, said if it also works in humans then "the age of personalised medicine would have finally arrived."

He told the BBC: "I thought - 'my God that's a game changer!' It's a very exciting, but surprise, finding.

"It looks a bit too good to be true, but the number of experts who have reviewed and checked this, I'm sure that it is.

"If this works in people as well as it does in mice, it looks faster, cheaper and possibly safer than other cell reprogramming technologies - personalised reprogrammed cell therapies may now be viable."

For age-related macular degeneration, which causes sight loss, it takes 10 months to go from a patient's skin sample to a therapy that could be injected into their eye -and at huge cost.

Prof Mason said weeks could be knocked off that time which would save money, as would cheaper components.

'Revolutionary'
The finding has been described as "remarkable" by the Medical Research Council's Prof Robin Lovell-Badge and as "a major scientific discovery" by Dr Dusko Ilic, a reader in stem cell science at Kings College London.

Dr Ilic added: "The approach is indeed revolutionary.

"It will make a fundamental change in how scientists perceive the interplay of environment and genome."

But he added: "It does not bring stem cell-based therapy closer. We will need to use the same precautions for the cells generated in this way as for the cells isolated from embryos or reprogrammed with a standard method."

And Prof Lovell-Badge said: "It is going to be a while before the nature of these cells are understood, and whether they might prove to be useful for developing therapies, but the really intriguing thing to discover will be the mechanism underlying how a low pH shock triggers reprogramming - and why it does not happen when we eat lemon or vinegar or drink cola?"

www.nature.com...

Here we report a unique cellular reprogramming phenomenon, called stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency (STAP), which requires neither nuclear transfer nor the introduction of transcription factors. In STAP, strong external stimuli such as a transient low-pH stressor reprogrammed mammalian somatic cells, resulting in the generation of pluripotent cells. Through real-time imaging of STAP cells derived from purified lymphocytes, as well as gene rearrangement analysis, we found that committed somatic cells give rise to STAP cells by reprogramming rather than selection. STAP cells showed a substantial decrease in DNA methylation in the regulatory regions of pluripotency marker genes. Blastocyst injection showed that STAP cells efficiently contribute to chimaeric embryos and to offspring via germline transmission. We also demonstrate the derivation of robustly expandable pluripotent cell lines from STAP cells. Thus, our findings indicate that epigenetic fate determination of mammalian cells can be markedly converted in a context-dependent manner by strong environmental cues.

Well, maybe having cravings that cause an acidic body condition can cause blood cells to turn into stem cells and repair the body. Good use for pickles. Slightly acidic blood allows bacterial growth though, maybe because it also does the same thing to them. But at the same time a slightly acid blood slows the growth of viruses. What to do....I suppose it depends on what time of the year it is and whether viruses are plentiful. I think cravings take care of this. We need to gain a little weight just before winter and lose it throughout the winter. The trouble is that as you get older, you do not lose all the winter weight....it slowly builds up. Maybe it is because we have plenty of food in the spring now. My desire for eating drops drastically in the spring but I tend to eat anyway because they say we need to eat three meals a day.

I quit listening to these people. I am going to eat a lot of dandelion leaves mixed in salad this coming spring. They are free. I'll go fishing and eat the fresh fish too. The people running this stuff want us to buy the supposedly safe commercial foods that harbor bacteria that have been accidentally engineered by greed to be a threat to us. Dandelions should take care of those critters.

I love how they have to stick the embryonic stem cells in there even though this breakthrough is all about using your own native cells to make stem cells. It's better to have your own existing cells used anyhow because you won't reject them like you would attempt to reject fetal cells.

reply to post by rickymouse


I used to eat about twice or three times a week, two days on average between food and I felt great, I was also vegetarian then and didn't eat much dairy if any, best I have ever felt.

I only started eating meals daily when I was pregnant and told to do so by the midwife, including meat which I didn't want to do and it wasn't good for my body.

Some years ago when I was studying religions I did the fasting bit too and fasting for 3 days totally realigned my metabolism after some baby weight, my weight stabilised at around 8 stone for years. Eventually after eating meat and some dairy every now and then it increased a bit, not really overweight or anything but I have felt better and have never had so many colds etc as recently. Now I am not eating meat again, giving up dairy and soon I will get in to fasting for a few days a week again, it works for me!

Whether any of this is affected by acidic / alkali foods or stem cells, who knows but I know it works for my own metabolism.

Some interesting information here on acid /alkali foods

www.dietingandfitness.com...
stanfordhospital.org...

reply to post by ketsuko


And using cells created from blood is more ethical IMO.

Good find. This is a game changer.

reply to post by theabsolutetruth


Modern medicine is a wonder. I say modern because we've probably known a lot longer.

reply to post by theabsolutetruth


Everyone's metabolism is different. Everyone needs their own mix of foods that are right for them. There is no normal in diet. Even a person who feels great as a vegetarian may have kids that need meats, depending on their particular metabolism. It can also be the other way around, with a meat eaters children not feeling right eating meats.

Some of this is because a person can have gene expression of one of their grandparents. Another thing is that if people have felt the way they do for years, they do not realize they can feel better. Enzyme production is different for everyone. Certain situations cause an increase in enzyme production, so eating different foods under different situations is possible. This is very complex and I only have about six years studying this subject. Someone with a lot more research can possibly narrow it down better and actually tell someone what may help them. I actually need a lot of veggies in my diet along with meats. Fish being the best meat for me. Some people cannot even eat fish, it makes them sick. That is the way it works.

I'm going to read your link, I may have read it already. I am finding lot of this acid base stuff is wrong. If you have a basic blood you may be more susceptible to viruses but at the same time you can fend off bacteria better. So I think season has a lot to do with this, more than people think. I see traditions formed long ago may have had a reason for being, putting up an excuse to do something so they didn't get ridiculed. I mean, this was not for everyone though, so those who felt better by these things banded together and formed celebrations.

Look at Thanksgiving and October Fest celebrations, maybe people noticed that if they ate more they got si ck less in the months ahead. They did not know the scientific reason, they just felt better if they participated. Now in the southern hemisphere, the festivals would be the opposite. We are tied directly to seasonal patterns in our diet, we have evolved to this pattern. It cannot be changed in a few generations successfully, it takes many generations.

reply to post by ketsuko


Usually fat cells, not the lipids themselves, have a stem cell within them. When you exercise, the stem cells are released as the contents of the fat cell itself are broke down do to catabolism.

Having enough PP stem cells in a treatment batch is very important. Currently, the technique is to grow these cells over about a 10 day period before differentiating them to what type you need say cardiomyocytes... many times this may not grow enough cells because the patient is a diabetic or is taking a cytotoxic drug.. A normal patient has about 5 percent EPCs floating in his blood stream...

This is exciting because it would lower the total cost and assure that a batch would have a standard threshold of cells for treatment. A targeted cellular treatment from a patients blood would be reduced to half the cost.

There is no need to mention embryonic stem cell treatments which have never been brought to market, never been shown to have efficacy in human trials, and have all sorts of side effects such as host vs graft disease. A patient always has a whole tool kit in his own body with his own cells.

That is unethical Devils work!!!!
sorry just had to represent the ignorant minority on ATS.


But as a assistant microbiologist in a pharmaceutical lab, this is a good news!

Next step Gene therapy!

For age-related macular degeneration, which causes sight loss, it takes 10 months to go from a patient's skin sample to a therapy that could be injected into their eye -and at huge cost.

Last month I was diagnosed with macular degeneration in the first stage.

I was feeling so down with the prospect of being blind in the near future - I still am afraid -, but then I heard about the trials with stemcells taking place since two years in the states and UK.

It makes me so happy to know that there is hope for all these people who lost their eyesight because of md.

And now it seems things are even more hopeful. It will take a lot of years, thats true, but better than no hope at all.

rickymouse
Well, maybe having cravings that cause an acidic body condition can cause blood cells to turn into stem cells and repair the body. Good use for pickles. Slightly acidic blood allows bacterial growth though, maybe because it also does the same thing to them. But at the same time a slightly acid blood slows the growth of viruses. What to do....I suppose it depends on what time of the year it is and whether viruses are plentiful. I think cravings take care of this. We need to gain a little weight just before winter and lose it throughout the winter. The trouble is that as you get older, you do not lose all the winter weight....it slowly builds up. Maybe it is because we have plenty of food in the spring now. My desire for eating drops drastically in the spring but I tend to eat anyway because they say we need to eat three meals a day.

I quit listening to these people. I am going to eat a lot of dandelion leaves mixed in salad this coming spring. They are free. I'll go fishing and eat the fresh fish too. The people running this stuff want us to buy the supposedly safe commercial foods that harbor bacteria that have been accidentally engineered by greed to be a threat to us. Dandelions should take care of those critters.

But then they say acid causes cancer alkaline prevents acid.

Char-Lee

rickymouse
Well, maybe having cravings that cause an acidic body condition can cause blood cells to turn into stem cells and repair the body. Good use for pickles. Slightly acidic blood allows bacterial growth though, maybe because it also does the same thing to them. But at the same time a slightly acid blood slows the growth of viruses. What to do....I suppose it depends on what time of the year it is and whether viruses are plentiful. I think cravings take care of this. We need to gain a little weight just before winter and lose it throughout the winter. The trouble is that as you get older, you do not lose all the winter weight....it slowly builds up. Maybe it is because we have plenty of food in the spring now. My desire for eating drops drastically in the spring but I tend to eat anyway because they say we need to eat three meals a day.

I quit listening to these people. I am going to eat a lot of dandelion leaves mixed in salad this coming spring. They are free. I'll go fishing and eat the fresh fish too. The people running this stuff want us to buy the supposedly safe commercial foods that harbor bacteria that have been accidentally engineered by greed to be a threat to us. Dandelions should take care of those critters.

But then they say acid causes cancer alkaline prevents acid.

Actually, I should explain what happens under a temporary acid condition caused by food intake, taking into consideration there is no problematic bacteria present to cause this condition. The body attempts to neutralize the acid and the immune system kicks in as if there is a viral or bacterial infection. Both these responses boost the immune system to fight the disease if the body is working properly. I kind of said this wrong above, I guess I was just trying to show something without properly explaining it completely..

It is the bodies response to the situation that protects us, not the acidosis. If acidosis keeps up than this causes inflammation after a time, which actually weakens the body. I sometimes forget that most people can't read my mind. The extra weight gained in the fall actually supplies us with ample energy to fight these things. The problem is it is supposed to be mostly used up in the spring when historically our ancestors had little food by the end of the winter.

When our body gets too acid, it does stimulate inflammation, and the inflammation does raise our risk of cancer. Constant stimulation of our immune system either runs it out of chemicals or it starts to make it too strong and it eats us.

Still, eating pickles in the fall, even oranges and fruit will cause a rise in acid, will cause the body to fight diseases. As long as done in moderation. If you eat half a bottle of pickles, you may overdo it. If you eat too much sugar you deplete the bodies neutralization chemicals or cause the body to over make these chemicals leading to trouble down the line. But eating a donut when you sense you need a donut can actually help us to fight disease.

I guess I shouldn't make generalized statements without completely explaining them but I figured most people aren't really interested in how things work, so why bother writing long articles. I do this too much already.

Here is a link to the article in nature;

Clonal culturing of human embryonic stem cells on laminin-521/E-cadherin matrix in defined and xeno-free environment
www.nature.com...
Nature Communications 5,Article number: 3195 doi:10.1038/ncomms4195

Here is a somewhat more detailed explanation for those who desire such (includes videos);
Researchers create embryonic stem cells without embryo
phys.org...


I am glad they were able to develop a method that did not involve using foreign embryo's to generate these cells. Seriously if they are talking about targeted personal genetic therapy it would make the most sense to use the individuals actual genes and not have to risk the body rejecting the material.

-FBB

rickymouse
Well, maybe having cravings that cause an acidic body condition can cause blood cells to turn into stem cells and repair the body.

I find it ironic that using acid to repair the body has actually already been done and I'm surprised that this discovery hasn't been made earlier. A good example is the cure for cancer. Yea, that's right, I said CURE...
www.collective-evolution.com...
More information on this drug can be found here...
www.cancer.org... e--dca-

Certain types of poisons produced by snakes, spiders, and scorpions have also been found to have uses in helping or curing other diseases. Finding acid to be a method for essentially re-programming cells seems like it would be a natural step although I can't honestly say I would have thought of it either lol. There is also different types of acid in the foods we eat and I have to wonder if there isn't some other underlying chemical re-action at work that we just aren't seeing. We see all sorts of herbal remedies now that are derived from plant extracts that are purported to have positive benefits. Finding that a low ph acid can be used to generate stem cells from blood seems to be a step that might lend itself to other discoveries as well.

reply to post by theabsolutetruth


Not to waste a good one-liner... Okay. I'm good with in vitro on this one.




F&S&