My colleague from Thai StemLife emailed me this article published in the Sunday Times, UK about professional footballers who had banked their babies' cord blood stem cells for future use with 2 private cord blood stem cell banks. The article cites the footballers saying that they were banking their baby's stem cells was for future therapeutic uses, including for their own cartilage and ligament repair.
POSING A CHALLENGE TO THE ETHICS OF PARENTS?: Although some people are concerned that banking of cord blood stem cells for use by a parent would raise questions as to whether parents may conceive in order to obtain stem cells, I think that this is probably highly unlikely for the following reasons:
1) Baby's stem cells are a genetic blend from each parent- there is no guarantee that it will match either father or mother.
2) If the parent wanted to select the genes to match their own, this is probably very expensive and may not yield a successful preganancy.
3) It takes 9 months to carry a baby to term!
4) There are no guarantees on the volume (or concentration) of umbilical cord blood that can be extracted during birth.
All that being said, cord blood stem cells are easily collected and it is a great source for newborn babies. Hooray to Thierry Henry, Arsenal Captain and France's renown striker who has banked his daughter Tea's (pronounced Tay-ah) stem cells for their own future use. If his children are sports personalities too, the stem cells might indeed come in handy for them in the future. Consider banking your own stem cells too Mr. Henry- you have a lot of fans cheering for your continuing illustrious career!
Hmm.. Now I'm wondering if David and Victoria Beckham banked their babies' cord blood stem cells too...
StemLife offers adult stem cell banking to individuals wishing to store stem cells for their own therapeutic use. These may include but are not limited to cancers, heart disease, diabetic foot ulcers. If you're an active sports person, you might like to consider banking your own adult stem cells for potential injuries. Admittedly whilst it may not be curative, your own stem cells may play an important role in repair of the injured site and make it less prone to re-injure again, with potentially less side effects than drugs and other painful remedial techniques.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Saturday, August 19, 2006
THE USE (AND ABUSE) OF STEM CELLS IN THE PURSUIT OF BEAUTY
Almost every time that I present publicly about what stem cells are and the services that StemLife provides, it is inevitable that someone in the audience will ask: "Can stem cells be used for anti-aging?". My honest reply is that StemLife is not currently working in this area which is dominated by botox, plastic surgery and implants. The next question often is more like a statement... "But other countries are offering stem cell therapy for anti-aging, aren't they?"
I'm no expert in this area of medical/surgical-enhancement but have heard rumours about many well-to-do individuals spending upwards of USD 70,000 on animal-derived stem cell therapy at special clinics in Switzerland which lasts for a year before they have to return for a 'top up'. Generally speaking, I don't have anything against people wanting to look young (aesthetics and proper grooming does play an important factor in finding mates, jobs etc.) and if stem cells can play a significant role in this area then it should be explored.
On the other end of the spectrum, I came across this article which reported that impoverished women were being paid USD 200 to abort the 8-12 week fetus and "donate" the fetus for stem cell extraction, which are then sold to exclusive cosmetic clinics. I find this practice disturbing - not only because abortion is morally complex and may be considered inhumane (let's not forget the health of the mother)- but also the concern of what diseases may be transmitted in the process.
My questions would be:
1) The source of the stem cells- is the source free of all infectious diseases and other transmissible conditions?
2) How are the cells collected and how are they processed?
3) Are there any additives and reagents used in the harvest or processing?
4) Does the final product contain cells or cellular extracts?
5) By which route is the product administered?
6) Possible allergic reactions or tumour formation?
THE POTENTIAL DOLLAR VALUE OF AN EMBRYO
The price set for obtaining fetal cells makes me wonder about whether embryonic stem cells obtained from discarded embryos have any assigned value. Some thoughts for those considering an IVF procedure- it might be good to check first on the facility's policies on what happens to the discarded embryos- if they are discarded or put through to commercial use or research.
HOW TO PREVENT THOSE EMBRYOS GETTING INTO THE WRONG HANDS
One thing that those going to IVF clinics could query is what happens to their discarded embryos? It may be clear to some people that these embryos have some value but then some lines may need to be drawn in a way that steers clear of any issues or processes that would be considered unethical or revealing in terms of genetic data.
StemLife's note:
With regards to the first 2 questions posed to me, I'll usually tell my audience that if you are taken ill and it is a condition treatable with stem cell therapy, healthy inside = healthy outside. Our cardiac stem cell therapy patients have been able to lead more energetic lives than before and as a consequence, reduced their dependency on vaso-dilators; our diabetic foot ulcer patients have also experienced a sharp decrease in ischaemic pain post stem cell infusion, thereby reducing their dependency on pain killers which can dull the mind and normal bodily activity.
However, we do not rule out the possibility that one day, cord blood stem cells or peripheral blood stem cells may be used by the individual who banked them, for purposes of tissue reconstruction or stimulation for repair. Never know, with all this interest and research investment globally, it might come sooner than we think!
I'm no expert in this area of medical/surgical-enhancement but have heard rumours about many well-to-do individuals spending upwards of USD 70,000 on animal-derived stem cell therapy at special clinics in Switzerland which lasts for a year before they have to return for a 'top up'. Generally speaking, I don't have anything against people wanting to look young (aesthetics and proper grooming does play an important factor in finding mates, jobs etc.) and if stem cells can play a significant role in this area then it should be explored.
On the other end of the spectrum, I came across this article which reported that impoverished women were being paid USD 200 to abort the 8-12 week fetus and "donate" the fetus for stem cell extraction, which are then sold to exclusive cosmetic clinics. I find this practice disturbing - not only because abortion is morally complex and may be considered inhumane (let's not forget the health of the mother)- but also the concern of what diseases may be transmitted in the process.
My questions would be:
1) The source of the stem cells- is the source free of all infectious diseases and other transmissible conditions?
2) How are the cells collected and how are they processed?
3) Are there any additives and reagents used in the harvest or processing?
4) Does the final product contain cells or cellular extracts?
5) By which route is the product administered?
6) Possible allergic reactions or tumour formation?
THE POTENTIAL DOLLAR VALUE OF AN EMBRYO
The price set for obtaining fetal cells makes me wonder about whether embryonic stem cells obtained from discarded embryos have any assigned value. Some thoughts for those considering an IVF procedure- it might be good to check first on the facility's policies on what happens to the discarded embryos- if they are discarded or put through to commercial use or research.
HOW TO PREVENT THOSE EMBRYOS GETTING INTO THE WRONG HANDS
One thing that those going to IVF clinics could query is what happens to their discarded embryos? It may be clear to some people that these embryos have some value but then some lines may need to be drawn in a way that steers clear of any issues or processes that would be considered unethical or revealing in terms of genetic data.
StemLife's note:
With regards to the first 2 questions posed to me, I'll usually tell my audience that if you are taken ill and it is a condition treatable with stem cell therapy, healthy inside = healthy outside. Our cardiac stem cell therapy patients have been able to lead more energetic lives than before and as a consequence, reduced their dependency on vaso-dilators; our diabetic foot ulcer patients have also experienced a sharp decrease in ischaemic pain post stem cell infusion, thereby reducing their dependency on pain killers which can dull the mind and normal bodily activity.
However, we do not rule out the possibility that one day, cord blood stem cells or peripheral blood stem cells may be used by the individual who banked them, for purposes of tissue reconstruction or stimulation for repair. Never know, with all this interest and research investment globally, it might come sooner than we think!
Thursday, August 17, 2006
No regrets about cord blood stem cell banking
Despite what any doctor may tell you about not needing your own set of stem cells (yes, there are a minority of doctors out there that still have audacity to actually advice patients against storing their stem cells!), it is also equally likely that should you be ill and need them, that you might be unable to obtain them in time for optimum treatment. This story showcases 2 families who banked their baby's stem cells when there was no apparent need to do so at the time, and used them to successfully treat their children.
The first story relates the experience of a 33 year-old father who banked his child's cord blood stem cells when his son was born in the year 2000. The family had no history of cancer, but his child developed leukemia and fortunately, since the stem cells were already banked, they were recalled quickly and managed to save his six year-old son. His advice to other parents is that this can happen to anyone despite the slim chances that most doctors and websites state and "if there's insurance against it: Buy it."
Now, almost a year after the procedure, the father can't understand why to bank or not to bank is even a question.
Quotes from the father: "I remember sitting there in the hospital thinking, what if we had never done that? What if we hadn't stored the cells?" he said. "Was it an act of God or fate that had our family doctor mention that one line about cord blood a few years ago? It's changed our lives, for sure."
The second story relates to Lisa Farquharson whose son Jesse was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer known as Retinoblastoma in 2001 and used his own cord blood stem cells as part of his recovery post chemotherapy.
Quotes from the mother: "We are the odds maker," Farquharson said. "We had no medical history. We were the family that should never have (banked). We proved the critics wrong."
"How guilty would we feel if we passed it up?" Farquharson said, noting she's felt the anguish of parents of ill children who didn't have the option to bank.
"We tell everyone they should do this. It saved our son's life. It's like spending money on a lottery ticket. But if you never use your child's stem cells, you win the lottery."
StemLife has enabled 2 successful cord blood stem cell transplants in Malaysia to-date and aims to make cord blood stem cell banking services affordable and accessible to all expecting parents.
Our StemLife family members bank their children's cord blood stem cell units hoping never to have to use them but in the knowledge that the stem cells have been placed in the care of good hands and are available for use whenever they are needed. :)
The first story relates the experience of a 33 year-old father who banked his child's cord blood stem cells when his son was born in the year 2000. The family had no history of cancer, but his child developed leukemia and fortunately, since the stem cells were already banked, they were recalled quickly and managed to save his six year-old son. His advice to other parents is that this can happen to anyone despite the slim chances that most doctors and websites state and "if there's insurance against it: Buy it."
Now, almost a year after the procedure, the father can't understand why to bank or not to bank is even a question.
Quotes from the father: "I remember sitting there in the hospital thinking, what if we had never done that? What if we hadn't stored the cells?" he said. "Was it an act of God or fate that had our family doctor mention that one line about cord blood a few years ago? It's changed our lives, for sure."
The second story relates to Lisa Farquharson whose son Jesse was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer known as Retinoblastoma in 2001 and used his own cord blood stem cells as part of his recovery post chemotherapy.
Quotes from the mother: "We are the odds maker," Farquharson said. "We had no medical history. We were the family that should never have (banked). We proved the critics wrong."
"How guilty would we feel if we passed it up?" Farquharson said, noting she's felt the anguish of parents of ill children who didn't have the option to bank.
"We tell everyone they should do this. It saved our son's life. It's like spending money on a lottery ticket. But if you never use your child's stem cells, you win the lottery."
StemLife has enabled 2 successful cord blood stem cell transplants in Malaysia to-date and aims to make cord blood stem cell banking services affordable and accessible to all expecting parents.
Our StemLife family members bank their children's cord blood stem cell units hoping never to have to use them but in the knowledge that the stem cells have been placed in the care of good hands and are available for use whenever they are needed. :)
Saturday, August 12, 2006
StemLife Q&A- Invited Panel Speaker at Biotechnology Asia 2006, PWTC Malaysia
I was invited by Dr. Reezal of KL Biotech to participate on the discussion panel of Biotechnology Asia on Wednesday. It was a panel which consisted of prestigious names and representatives from various institutions comprising scientific higher education, research, drug manufacture, agro-biotechnology and nano-technology from around the world.
It started off with every representative giving a short summary on where they were from and what their company or organization did. As it happened, I was to go first. Datuk Salleh who was the Chair of the panel, invited me to explain what StemLife's mission and define stem cells to the audience which consisted of more than 200 students from local universities. After all the panel members had their turn (some of them had their slide presentation then and there too), questions were invited from the floor.
STUDENTS' JOB CONCERNS: Students took their turns to pose their questions to the panel and many of them were directed to me as a potential employer. The main concern of these biotechnology students were what jobs would be available, how to get them and what career opportunities there are for a science graduate. Some of the students also posed the question: "What is the government going to do to give jobs to science graduates?" to Datuk Salleh and Prof Emeritus Dr. Latiff formerly from the Government.
WHAT DO I LOOK FOR WHEN HIRING: In my answer, I explained the qualities that I would look for in a job applicant, namely intelligence, emotional stability (to get along with others in the workplace) and attitude. All of these qualities are assessed in an interview and hiring or promotion is often based on an equal presence of these 3 qualities in any individual.
PURSUING HIGHER EDUCATION: Prof. Christopher Lowe of Cambridge University and Prof. Tony Cass of Imperial College echoed my sentiments, explaining that students applying for higher education at Cambridge require both the right educational background and technical ability, and self-motivation. An interesting point that Chris mentioned was that many applicants had no idea what they were looking for and why- and that these were pretty much rejected outright. When pressed which of the two qualities would be deemed more important, he said that it would probably be motivation; as this cannot be taught nor gained through school (out of 5000 science post-graduates applicants annually, Cambridge accepts about 30).
FIND YOUR JOB: The panel members around me seemed genuinely surprised that a student would ask what the government would do to give them each a job. Datuk Salleh and Prof. Latiff responded that jobs were out there for students to find and that perhaps they could consider being entrepreneurs if they had good ideas. I wondered if the visiting Professors from the UK had the impression that our local students were lacking in motivation in seeking jobs and were too dependent on government handouts.
The conference continued on yesterday and I was allocated the 3:15-4:00pm slot to deliver my speech. I was delighted that there was an interested audience who were wide awake all throughout my assigned hour (considering that it was the post-lunch and tea break session!). The feedback was generally positive and most of the international and local audience felt that they now knew this biomedical technology exists, is credible and well established in Malaysia.
Depending on what everyone filled in on their feedback form after my talk, perhaps they may invite me back next year.
It started off with every representative giving a short summary on where they were from and what their company or organization did. As it happened, I was to go first. Datuk Salleh who was the Chair of the panel, invited me to explain what StemLife's mission and define stem cells to the audience which consisted of more than 200 students from local universities. After all the panel members had their turn (some of them had their slide presentation then and there too), questions were invited from the floor.
STUDENTS' JOB CONCERNS: Students took their turns to pose their questions to the panel and many of them were directed to me as a potential employer. The main concern of these biotechnology students were what jobs would be available, how to get them and what career opportunities there are for a science graduate. Some of the students also posed the question: "What is the government going to do to give jobs to science graduates?" to Datuk Salleh and Prof Emeritus Dr. Latiff formerly from the Government.
WHAT DO I LOOK FOR WHEN HIRING: In my answer, I explained the qualities that I would look for in a job applicant, namely intelligence, emotional stability (to get along with others in the workplace) and attitude. All of these qualities are assessed in an interview and hiring or promotion is often based on an equal presence of these 3 qualities in any individual.
PURSUING HIGHER EDUCATION: Prof. Christopher Lowe of Cambridge University and Prof. Tony Cass of Imperial College echoed my sentiments, explaining that students applying for higher education at Cambridge require both the right educational background and technical ability, and self-motivation. An interesting point that Chris mentioned was that many applicants had no idea what they were looking for and why- and that these were pretty much rejected outright. When pressed which of the two qualities would be deemed more important, he said that it would probably be motivation; as this cannot be taught nor gained through school (out of 5000 science post-graduates applicants annually, Cambridge accepts about 30).
FIND YOUR JOB: The panel members around me seemed genuinely surprised that a student would ask what the government would do to give them each a job. Datuk Salleh and Prof. Latiff responded that jobs were out there for students to find and that perhaps they could consider being entrepreneurs if they had good ideas. I wondered if the visiting Professors from the UK had the impression that our local students were lacking in motivation in seeking jobs and were too dependent on government handouts.
The conference continued on yesterday and I was allocated the 3:15-4:00pm slot to deliver my speech. I was delighted that there was an interested audience who were wide awake all throughout my assigned hour (considering that it was the post-lunch and tea break session!). The feedback was generally positive and most of the international and local audience felt that they now knew this biomedical technology exists, is credible and well established in Malaysia.
Depending on what everyone filled in on their feedback form after my talk, perhaps they may invite me back next year.
Monday, August 07, 2006
If you have a twin brother, he can donate his adult stem cells to you
I was reading some of the news that's published on the web (my usual after-dark activity) and came across this very interesting account of a journalist whose brother was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and was called upon to donate his stem cells. It really is rather well documented and very emotional description of what his feelings for his brother, the process that he went through for stem cell harvesting and also the potential huge amounts that would have been spent had he not been able to donate.
Having read his story, I think that the doctors should have banked some of his own for him -whilst he is healthy- just in case he also develops the cancer and requires his own stem cells for a transplant. I've copied the story here in full text, just in case the link goes off-line, and I've also added in my own thoughts in italics just to share with you the experiences we've had at StemLife.
THE STORY:
My brother, Gene Berthelsen, was born at 5:13 p.m. on Oct. 4, 1937. I was born 20 minutes later at 5:33, although it could have been the other way round. We're not sure.
That's because when our mother brought us home from what was then Siskiyou County Hospital in Yreka, and bathed us for the first time, she took the hospital-supplied identification bracelets off both of us. Once finished, she told us decades later, she discovered we were so identical that she couldn't figure out which was which. One of us arbitrarily became Gene and the other John, which was disconcerting. Even though we were separated only by minutes, over the years, as we grew up in the remote mountain town of Etna, near the Oregon border, we developed an older brother-younger brother relationship -- he steadier and more responsible, I more rebellious and immature; he has lived his life in California, I have spent much of mine in Asia. He is also one of Northern California's most prominent traditional jazz musicians. I play CDs on the stereo.
We are monozygotic, or mirror twins. I am left-handed, he is right-handed, a sign that we originated from the same ovum. Because we have suffered almost exactly the same diseases at nearly identical times, when he was stricken with bone marrow cancer last year I was filled with dread. The multiple myeloma he contracted became a foe we both would fight. Our remarkable similarity, we hope, appears to be a key to prolonging my brother's life. This is a story of our unique advantage in battling cancer and the very real danger that what happens to one could happen to the other. Since I live on one side of the planet, he on the other, the fact that we share the same DNA has brought us into more intimate contact with each other than we have known for decades.
In the face of vastly differing diets, climates and lifestyles, our body weight has usually been within a pound of each other. Despite the fact that our careers have separated us by a third of the globe, we remained largely identical for many years -- enough so that once, rounding a corner and unexpectedly encountering a full-length mirror, he asked it what I was doing there. Even after we broke our noses in separate childhood accidents, his curved slightly to the right, mine slightly to the left, maintaining the mirror image. On meeting us together for the first time, his oncologist, Dr. Ginna G. Laport, did a double-take and asked which of us was which, despite the fact that at that point he had lost most of his hair and I am bearded.
In February, I flew from Hong Kong, where I live, to the United States to donate adult stem cells to be injected into him in an attempt to restart his bone marrow production and re-create my immune system in his body. Interestingly, it is also expected to give him any allergies I might have acquired over the years. Thus, whatever physical divergences we have undergone over almost seven decades and wide geographic separation are about to end. We are about to become one again.
The story began on May 27, 2005 when, after complaining for several weeks of what he thought was a severe charley horse, my brother received a chilling diagnosis, multiple myeloma, or cancer of the plasma cells. As the cancer grows, it tends to clump up within the marrow and eat away the bone. He required the immediate insertion of a titanium rod in his left femur within hours. If the operation hadn't taken place, his doctors said, the bone could have disintegrated in an instant simply from walking. Later, cancer also would be discovered in the marrow of his pelvis and rib.
Until fairly recently, a diagnosis of multiple myeloma was almost a death sentence. Even today the survival rate is only three to four years, according to the American Society of Hematology. That was enough to send my own blood racing, not only out of concern for my lifelong doppelganger, but because our medical histories are so similar. In 2002, for instance, when I entered the hospital for a triple bypass operation to clear blocked arteries, he was operated on just three weeks later for the same problem. Could cancer be an inevitable part of my future?
Indeed a very valid question and at StemLife, we provide banking services to enable healthy adult donors to bank their own stem cells for a potential future need, alleviating the daunting prospects of having to hunt for a donor.
Dr. Laport, an oncologist at Stanford University Medical Center Bone Marrow Transplantation Program, says nobody really knows today how much of a role genetics plays. Certainly there is an obvious genetic predisposition among siblings, especially among those who share identical DNA. But, Laport said, unidentified environmental factors play an equally vital role -- or played, probably 20 to 30 years ago -- an irony for us, as my brother spent his life in the relatively clean surroundings of Northern California, while I have spent much of the last three decades in several environmentally degraded Asian countries.
DTR a fellow blogger is extremely concerned about HK's continually degrading environment, check out his blog on this here.
Fortunately, my brother is a member of Kaiser Permanente, one of the biggest health maintenance insurance plans in the United States. Despite controversies over limitations of care to some patients in other areas, Kaiser was willing to pour vast and expensive resources into his care.
For several months, Kaiser doctors sought to control his cancer through chemotherapy, with mixed results. Then, in December, they were elated to discover that he had a twin brother whose DNA was identical. Unfortunately, that brother was 7,000 miles away. Exhaustive physical examinations ensued in Hong Kong, including the drawing of 12 vials of blood to test for such afflictions as AIDS, syphilis and others. I emerged clean and ready for California.
Until relatively recently, close siblings and those who shared identical DNA underwent bone marrow transplants rather than stem cell transplants. Fortunately, that is no longer necessary. Bone marrow donations are excruciatingly painful. The donor is anesthetized while holes are drilled in the back of the pelvic saddle for the extraction of marrow. That pain has largely been eliminated through the substitution of transplanted stem cells for bone marrow.
Bone marrow extraction is quite painful (sometime excruciatingly so) and involved a surgical procedure which can be traumatic to a child or an adult. This procedure is now quite unpopular and many donors have turned down donating their stem cells due to the pain and risks involved. Those who donate their marrow once, very rarely will undergo the procedure a second time.
The common misperception is that stem cells are found only in the nuclei of human ova. The stem cells found in the human ovum are embryonic stem cells, which are even more immature and less differentiated than hematopoietic stem cells, which promote the formation of blood cells. Hematopoetic stem cells are found in the bone marrow of all humans. Over the past 15 years, doctors have discovered that they can increase the production of immature hematopoietic cells by the injection of a hormone called granulocyte colony stimulating factor, known commercially as Neupogen.
If no independent donor can be found, cancer patients donate their own stem cells, which can be manipulated and processed to remove cancer cells, and then transplanted back into the patient. But, according to Adele Ullner, a Stanford Blood and Bone Marrow Center nurse, it is difficult to remove all cancer cells from a stricken patient's cells. Having an independent donor with identical -- but cancer-free DNA -- is far preferable and gives the patient a far better chance for longer remission.
They also have a relatively cheap donor. Finding an independent donor with similar DNA costs about $300,000, about triple the cost of that from an identical twin. The cost for the remainder of his oncological care, including the removal and replacement of his femur, probably ran to another $100,000. Our medical situation is certainly unusual, although we are not particularly rare, since about four of each 1,000 live births result in identical twins, a pattern that seems to have held steady across different ethnic groups for ages. Stanford's cancer program, Ullner said, has been doing marrow transplants for 16 years. To her knowledge, this is the first time an identical twin has been found as a donor.
Neupogen injections to stimulate stem cell production are no picnic. Although often they involve little pain, at odd times they involve pain so acute, Ullner said, that some receiving the shots call the hospital in the belief that they are having heart attacks.
These pains strike at odd times. For me, I was lying in bed watching television. I got up momentarily to discover that every single heartbeat was sending what seemed to be a pulsating electric shock through my body. I was reminded of a time when I was a child on our father's dairy farm and on a dare I touched an electrified cow fence. Painkillers such as Vicodin help, but there are times when even Vicodin doesn't slow those electric shocks. Another possible side effect is an enlarged spleen. (Indeed, those injected with Neupogen are warned not to fly for at least three days after the process because one patient who didn't wait suffered a ruptured spleen while in the air. The 14 1/2-hour flight back to Hong Kong was no place to experiment.)
I wonder what dose of Neupogen was administered, StemLife clients who have been stimulated do not always experience any side effects- perhaps it is because we use a lighter dose.
At the end of the five days comes "apheresis,'' the harvesting of those stimulated cells. It is mainly boring -- sitting in what vaguely resembles a dentist's chair, a tube in the left arm draining off blood, which then runs through a centrifuge that separates out blood stem cells before the remainder of the blood is returned through the right wrist. About 9 ounces of blood is outside one's body at any given time. The blood is chilled before being returned, which for some odd reason makes your nose itch. Over about four hours, the 4,750 cubic centimeters of blood in my body circulated through the centrifuge more than three times, passing 15,045 cubic centimeters through the machine to produce what my brother needed.
The process does indeed take up an afternoon, we usually recommend that donors bring their own DVD's or select from our wide range of entertainment ranging from a 2 hour foot reflexology, amusing conversations with our team members or music to make the time go by effortlessly. All whilst in the care of a very professional team.
I was surprised to discover how much the process had weakened me. On my first trip back to the elliptical trainer, where I usually exercise for an hour, I lasted only 15 minutes before staggering off. It would be weeks back in Hong Kong before I found myself fully recovered.
Interesting, on the contrary, our stem cell bankers return to normal work the very next day. Perhaps it is age? The author is 69 years old. However, our eldest donor is a very jolly 88 year old gentleman who didn't report any exceptional tiredness or side-effects..!
The Stanford Blood and Bone Marrow Center itself, where the procedure took place, is a remarkable institution, seemingly paying as much attention to patients' emotional and spiritual needs as their physical ones. Patients are provided with voluminous information about their afflictions, with complete descriptions of the emotional issues they face both prior to and after recovery, of sadness and depression two to three months after the transplant is completed. Extensive counseling services are provided both to recipients and donors. Gene's doctors at the facility set out to destroy the cancer cells in his bone marrow, and along with it the entire marrow itself, as well as his immune system. In the early years of the program, cancer patients were sequestered in sterile rooms for 100 days, because any contact with any kind of virus would kill them, before regenerated bone marrow cells were injected back into their bodies.
That, thankfully, is no longer necessary. Huge doses of antibiotics allow patients to live relatively normal lives, although they must wear inhalators when outside.
Nonetheless, it is a horrific process. For months, he underwent chemotherapy that cost him his hair and much of his vitality. He was required to drink three liters of water a day to flush out his liver and kidneys. If he didn't, the chemicals could destroy his vital organs.
Then, starting on March 15, the process of destroying the cancer cells accelerated drastically when a cocktail of virulent drugs was injected through a catheter in the center of his chest. The drug also delivered immediate side effects including nausea, vomiting, decreased appetite, diarrhea, fatigue, sores in the mouth and throat, and decreased blood cell counts. Later possible side effects could include sterility, cataracts, hypothyroidism, scarring of the lungs and second malignancies.
High-dose therapy, as it is known, kills all cells that form newly reproducing elements of the body -- not only bone marrow but hair, fingernails, semen, saliva and blood cells that reproduce to fight disease. It results in infertility because of the permanent damage to sperm cells in men and ova in women. In other words, the medical process comes as close as possible to killing the patient in an effort to eradicate the cancer cells.
On March 23, the process continued with the transplant of my DNA into my brother's body to seek to re-create his bone marrow and immune system. The toxicity of the chemotherapy was now so high that he required the constant injection of fluid through a catheter to keep the poisons from destroying his vital organs.
Would he make it? In the cold language of the disclosure statement of the Stanford University medical consent form, if both my DNA and the cells he donated as a backup failed to grow, "then this complication would be expected to result in death."
He ultimately grew so ill that the Stanford doctors became concerned that his body was rejecting my cells. He lost 26 pounds in two weeks, or nearly 15 percent of his body weight. But finally, on April 7, after virtually nonstop vomiting and diarrhea, his white blood cell count started to rise. "Engraftment,'' as his doctors called it, had begun. My cells had been transplanted, prompting a weak joke from him that he had suddenly become left-handed, as I am.
On April 21, he was finally able to return to his Sacramento home, weak, debilitated and raspy-voiced but on the mend. Along with everything else, the chemotherapy had destroyed his ability to produce saliva, making him sound like he had aged 20 years in a matter of weeks. He said he looked more like Uncle Fester of the Munsters than Yul Brynner.
Now, however, he is recovering his old vitality -- along with his hair, which oddly is coming back in different colors. He has regained 13 pounds, although he has continuing neuropathy -- numbness in his hands and feet -- and he is dizzy when he stands too quickly. But tests in mid-July showed that levels of IG (g) protein, an indication of his kidney function in battling myeloma, had fallen to healthy levels, meaning he is now cancer-free.
Ultimately, the process, according to Laport, should dramatically extend his time in remission, at which time other therapies should come into play.
On Sunday, April 30, two weeks after the final process was completed, Gene was able to return to the musical stage at a jazz festival in Jackson, pick up his cornet and front the Catsnjammer Jazz Band, as they have been called for nearly 30 years. He didn't play long, but he played. After all, in the 1920s, jazz cornetist Joe "King" Oliver wrote this song:
Hello central, give me doctor jazz
He's got the thing for me, I'll say he has
So when I'm in trouble and when I've got the blues
He's one who makes me put on both my dancin' shoes.
You saved your brother with your adult stem cells. Thank you for sharing your story. It is so important that more people understand the process of stem cell collection and use in cancer treatment and to know that it really isn't hocus-pocus or useless. Perhaps you might like to come bank your own here with us in KL!
Having read his story, I think that the doctors should have banked some of his own for him -whilst he is healthy- just in case he also develops the cancer and requires his own stem cells for a transplant. I've copied the story here in full text, just in case the link goes off-line, and I've also added in my own thoughts in italics just to share with you the experiences we've had at StemLife.
THE STORY:
My brother, Gene Berthelsen, was born at 5:13 p.m. on Oct. 4, 1937. I was born 20 minutes later at 5:33, although it could have been the other way round. We're not sure.
That's because when our mother brought us home from what was then Siskiyou County Hospital in Yreka, and bathed us for the first time, she took the hospital-supplied identification bracelets off both of us. Once finished, she told us decades later, she discovered we were so identical that she couldn't figure out which was which. One of us arbitrarily became Gene and the other John, which was disconcerting. Even though we were separated only by minutes, over the years, as we grew up in the remote mountain town of Etna, near the Oregon border, we developed an older brother-younger brother relationship -- he steadier and more responsible, I more rebellious and immature; he has lived his life in California, I have spent much of mine in Asia. He is also one of Northern California's most prominent traditional jazz musicians. I play CDs on the stereo.
We are monozygotic, or mirror twins. I am left-handed, he is right-handed, a sign that we originated from the same ovum. Because we have suffered almost exactly the same diseases at nearly identical times, when he was stricken with bone marrow cancer last year I was filled with dread. The multiple myeloma he contracted became a foe we both would fight. Our remarkable similarity, we hope, appears to be a key to prolonging my brother's life. This is a story of our unique advantage in battling cancer and the very real danger that what happens to one could happen to the other. Since I live on one side of the planet, he on the other, the fact that we share the same DNA has brought us into more intimate contact with each other than we have known for decades.
In the face of vastly differing diets, climates and lifestyles, our body weight has usually been within a pound of each other. Despite the fact that our careers have separated us by a third of the globe, we remained largely identical for many years -- enough so that once, rounding a corner and unexpectedly encountering a full-length mirror, he asked it what I was doing there. Even after we broke our noses in separate childhood accidents, his curved slightly to the right, mine slightly to the left, maintaining the mirror image. On meeting us together for the first time, his oncologist, Dr. Ginna G. Laport, did a double-take and asked which of us was which, despite the fact that at that point he had lost most of his hair and I am bearded.
In February, I flew from Hong Kong, where I live, to the United States to donate adult stem cells to be injected into him in an attempt to restart his bone marrow production and re-create my immune system in his body. Interestingly, it is also expected to give him any allergies I might have acquired over the years. Thus, whatever physical divergences we have undergone over almost seven decades and wide geographic separation are about to end. We are about to become one again.
The story began on May 27, 2005 when, after complaining for several weeks of what he thought was a severe charley horse, my brother received a chilling diagnosis, multiple myeloma, or cancer of the plasma cells. As the cancer grows, it tends to clump up within the marrow and eat away the bone. He required the immediate insertion of a titanium rod in his left femur within hours. If the operation hadn't taken place, his doctors said, the bone could have disintegrated in an instant simply from walking. Later, cancer also would be discovered in the marrow of his pelvis and rib.
Until fairly recently, a diagnosis of multiple myeloma was almost a death sentence. Even today the survival rate is only three to four years, according to the American Society of Hematology. That was enough to send my own blood racing, not only out of concern for my lifelong doppelganger, but because our medical histories are so similar. In 2002, for instance, when I entered the hospital for a triple bypass operation to clear blocked arteries, he was operated on just three weeks later for the same problem. Could cancer be an inevitable part of my future?
Indeed a very valid question and at StemLife, we provide banking services to enable healthy adult donors to bank their own stem cells for a potential future need, alleviating the daunting prospects of having to hunt for a donor.
Dr. Laport, an oncologist at Stanford University Medical Center Bone Marrow Transplantation Program, says nobody really knows today how much of a role genetics plays. Certainly there is an obvious genetic predisposition among siblings, especially among those who share identical DNA. But, Laport said, unidentified environmental factors play an equally vital role -- or played, probably 20 to 30 years ago -- an irony for us, as my brother spent his life in the relatively clean surroundings of Northern California, while I have spent much of the last three decades in several environmentally degraded Asian countries.
DTR a fellow blogger is extremely concerned about HK's continually degrading environment, check out his blog on this here.
Fortunately, my brother is a member of Kaiser Permanente, one of the biggest health maintenance insurance plans in the United States. Despite controversies over limitations of care to some patients in other areas, Kaiser was willing to pour vast and expensive resources into his care.
For several months, Kaiser doctors sought to control his cancer through chemotherapy, with mixed results. Then, in December, they were elated to discover that he had a twin brother whose DNA was identical. Unfortunately, that brother was 7,000 miles away. Exhaustive physical examinations ensued in Hong Kong, including the drawing of 12 vials of blood to test for such afflictions as AIDS, syphilis and others. I emerged clean and ready for California.
Until relatively recently, close siblings and those who shared identical DNA underwent bone marrow transplants rather than stem cell transplants. Fortunately, that is no longer necessary. Bone marrow donations are excruciatingly painful. The donor is anesthetized while holes are drilled in the back of the pelvic saddle for the extraction of marrow. That pain has largely been eliminated through the substitution of transplanted stem cells for bone marrow.
Bone marrow extraction is quite painful (sometime excruciatingly so) and involved a surgical procedure which can be traumatic to a child or an adult. This procedure is now quite unpopular and many donors have turned down donating their stem cells due to the pain and risks involved. Those who donate their marrow once, very rarely will undergo the procedure a second time.
The common misperception is that stem cells are found only in the nuclei of human ova. The stem cells found in the human ovum are embryonic stem cells, which are even more immature and less differentiated than hematopoietic stem cells, which promote the formation of blood cells. Hematopoetic stem cells are found in the bone marrow of all humans. Over the past 15 years, doctors have discovered that they can increase the production of immature hematopoietic cells by the injection of a hormone called granulocyte colony stimulating factor, known commercially as Neupogen.
If no independent donor can be found, cancer patients donate their own stem cells, which can be manipulated and processed to remove cancer cells, and then transplanted back into the patient. But, according to Adele Ullner, a Stanford Blood and Bone Marrow Center nurse, it is difficult to remove all cancer cells from a stricken patient's cells. Having an independent donor with identical -- but cancer-free DNA -- is far preferable and gives the patient a far better chance for longer remission.
They also have a relatively cheap donor. Finding an independent donor with similar DNA costs about $300,000, about triple the cost of that from an identical twin. The cost for the remainder of his oncological care, including the removal and replacement of his femur, probably ran to another $100,000. Our medical situation is certainly unusual, although we are not particularly rare, since about four of each 1,000 live births result in identical twins, a pattern that seems to have held steady across different ethnic groups for ages. Stanford's cancer program, Ullner said, has been doing marrow transplants for 16 years. To her knowledge, this is the first time an identical twin has been found as a donor.
Neupogen injections to stimulate stem cell production are no picnic. Although often they involve little pain, at odd times they involve pain so acute, Ullner said, that some receiving the shots call the hospital in the belief that they are having heart attacks.
These pains strike at odd times. For me, I was lying in bed watching television. I got up momentarily to discover that every single heartbeat was sending what seemed to be a pulsating electric shock through my body. I was reminded of a time when I was a child on our father's dairy farm and on a dare I touched an electrified cow fence. Painkillers such as Vicodin help, but there are times when even Vicodin doesn't slow those electric shocks. Another possible side effect is an enlarged spleen. (Indeed, those injected with Neupogen are warned not to fly for at least three days after the process because one patient who didn't wait suffered a ruptured spleen while in the air. The 14 1/2-hour flight back to Hong Kong was no place to experiment.)
I wonder what dose of Neupogen was administered, StemLife clients who have been stimulated do not always experience any side effects- perhaps it is because we use a lighter dose.
At the end of the five days comes "apheresis,'' the harvesting of those stimulated cells. It is mainly boring -- sitting in what vaguely resembles a dentist's chair, a tube in the left arm draining off blood, which then runs through a centrifuge that separates out blood stem cells before the remainder of the blood is returned through the right wrist. About 9 ounces of blood is outside one's body at any given time. The blood is chilled before being returned, which for some odd reason makes your nose itch. Over about four hours, the 4,750 cubic centimeters of blood in my body circulated through the centrifuge more than three times, passing 15,045 cubic centimeters through the machine to produce what my brother needed.
The process does indeed take up an afternoon, we usually recommend that donors bring their own DVD's or select from our wide range of entertainment ranging from a 2 hour foot reflexology, amusing conversations with our team members or music to make the time go by effortlessly. All whilst in the care of a very professional team.
I was surprised to discover how much the process had weakened me. On my first trip back to the elliptical trainer, where I usually exercise for an hour, I lasted only 15 minutes before staggering off. It would be weeks back in Hong Kong before I found myself fully recovered.
Interesting, on the contrary, our stem cell bankers return to normal work the very next day. Perhaps it is age? The author is 69 years old. However, our eldest donor is a very jolly 88 year old gentleman who didn't report any exceptional tiredness or side-effects..!
The Stanford Blood and Bone Marrow Center itself, where the procedure took place, is a remarkable institution, seemingly paying as much attention to patients' emotional and spiritual needs as their physical ones. Patients are provided with voluminous information about their afflictions, with complete descriptions of the emotional issues they face both prior to and after recovery, of sadness and depression two to three months after the transplant is completed. Extensive counseling services are provided both to recipients and donors. Gene's doctors at the facility set out to destroy the cancer cells in his bone marrow, and along with it the entire marrow itself, as well as his immune system. In the early years of the program, cancer patients were sequestered in sterile rooms for 100 days, because any contact with any kind of virus would kill them, before regenerated bone marrow cells were injected back into their bodies.
That, thankfully, is no longer necessary. Huge doses of antibiotics allow patients to live relatively normal lives, although they must wear inhalators when outside.
Nonetheless, it is a horrific process. For months, he underwent chemotherapy that cost him his hair and much of his vitality. He was required to drink three liters of water a day to flush out his liver and kidneys. If he didn't, the chemicals could destroy his vital organs.
Then, starting on March 15, the process of destroying the cancer cells accelerated drastically when a cocktail of virulent drugs was injected through a catheter in the center of his chest. The drug also delivered immediate side effects including nausea, vomiting, decreased appetite, diarrhea, fatigue, sores in the mouth and throat, and decreased blood cell counts. Later possible side effects could include sterility, cataracts, hypothyroidism, scarring of the lungs and second malignancies.
High-dose therapy, as it is known, kills all cells that form newly reproducing elements of the body -- not only bone marrow but hair, fingernails, semen, saliva and blood cells that reproduce to fight disease. It results in infertility because of the permanent damage to sperm cells in men and ova in women. In other words, the medical process comes as close as possible to killing the patient in an effort to eradicate the cancer cells.
On March 23, the process continued with the transplant of my DNA into my brother's body to seek to re-create his bone marrow and immune system. The toxicity of the chemotherapy was now so high that he required the constant injection of fluid through a catheter to keep the poisons from destroying his vital organs.
Would he make it? In the cold language of the disclosure statement of the Stanford University medical consent form, if both my DNA and the cells he donated as a backup failed to grow, "then this complication would be expected to result in death."
He ultimately grew so ill that the Stanford doctors became concerned that his body was rejecting my cells. He lost 26 pounds in two weeks, or nearly 15 percent of his body weight. But finally, on April 7, after virtually nonstop vomiting and diarrhea, his white blood cell count started to rise. "Engraftment,'' as his doctors called it, had begun. My cells had been transplanted, prompting a weak joke from him that he had suddenly become left-handed, as I am.
On April 21, he was finally able to return to his Sacramento home, weak, debilitated and raspy-voiced but on the mend. Along with everything else, the chemotherapy had destroyed his ability to produce saliva, making him sound like he had aged 20 years in a matter of weeks. He said he looked more like Uncle Fester of the Munsters than Yul Brynner.
Now, however, he is recovering his old vitality -- along with his hair, which oddly is coming back in different colors. He has regained 13 pounds, although he has continuing neuropathy -- numbness in his hands and feet -- and he is dizzy when he stands too quickly. But tests in mid-July showed that levels of IG (g) protein, an indication of his kidney function in battling myeloma, had fallen to healthy levels, meaning he is now cancer-free.
Ultimately, the process, according to Laport, should dramatically extend his time in remission, at which time other therapies should come into play.
On Sunday, April 30, two weeks after the final process was completed, Gene was able to return to the musical stage at a jazz festival in Jackson, pick up his cornet and front the Catsnjammer Jazz Band, as they have been called for nearly 30 years. He didn't play long, but he played. After all, in the 1920s, jazz cornetist Joe "King" Oliver wrote this song:
Hello central, give me doctor jazz
He's got the thing for me, I'll say he has
So when I'm in trouble and when I've got the blues
He's one who makes me put on both my dancin' shoes.
You saved your brother with your adult stem cells. Thank you for sharing your story. It is so important that more people understand the process of stem cell collection and use in cancer treatment and to know that it really isn't hocus-pocus or useless. Perhaps you might like to come bank your own here with us in KL!
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Professor Colin McGuckin reverts on Cord Blood Stem Cell Research
Following the post on the announcement by Prof. Colin McGuckin that umbilical cord blood stem cells are able to transform into insulin secreting cells, I received a question about whether this work could be applied to Type 1 diabetes and whether it is ready for clinical application.
Essentially, in Type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce any insulin and it is work like this that paves the way for tissue creation with the aim of replacing the functions of specific missing or non-functioning organs. So it is conceivable that this work could lead to a cure for Type 1 diabetes.
The challenge that scientists and doctors face is time. Everyday, the full breadth of current biochemical and physical chemistry is churned to understand how cells work and how they can be harnessed to save lives. Whether this challenge is completed in our lifetime depends on factors like funding priority (more money- more equipment- more brains!), technological advancement (now we have fluorescent microscopes and thermocyclers) and political backing to move a research concept into a trial.
I wrote to Prof. Colin with the question that I was asked and wasn't sure if he would reply me (but he did!) and a few of the points raised here were touched on by Prof. Colin's reply below:
Thank you, for your email.
We are indeed excited to be developing cord blood stem cells for regenerative medicine.
We have been able to develop some new strategies for producing tissues such as liver, nervous tissue and pancreatic tissue.
However, I am always completely honest and would say that our work is still at the research and development stage.
We are working as fast as we can to develop human protocols and all our work is done with human cord blood stem cells, but we are not yet in a position to put the cells into people yet for diabetes. Cord Blood is going into people in our centre for other disorders etc, but not yet for diabetics.
It has been very difficult over the years to get funding for this work and we work on a "shoestring budget" and this does slow us down, but I hope that we will be in a position either ourselves, or jointly with our collaborators to help patients with diabetes in the future.
With my very best wishes
Colin
Colin P.McGuckin
Professor of Regenerative Medicine
UK Centre for Cord Blood.
Haematological Sciences and the International Centre for Life
Medical School
Framlington Place
University of Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH
United Kingdom
Thank you for your kind reply Prof. I really appreciate that you took the time and effort to write back to me. I hope that you'll continue to get funded, succeed and proceed to human protocols soon. :)
Essentially, in Type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce any insulin and it is work like this that paves the way for tissue creation with the aim of replacing the functions of specific missing or non-functioning organs. So it is conceivable that this work could lead to a cure for Type 1 diabetes.
The challenge that scientists and doctors face is time. Everyday, the full breadth of current biochemical and physical chemistry is churned to understand how cells work and how they can be harnessed to save lives. Whether this challenge is completed in our lifetime depends on factors like funding priority (more money- more equipment- more brains!), technological advancement (now we have fluorescent microscopes and thermocyclers) and political backing to move a research concept into a trial.
I wrote to Prof. Colin with the question that I was asked and wasn't sure if he would reply me (but he did!) and a few of the points raised here were touched on by Prof. Colin's reply below:
Thank you, for your email.
We are indeed excited to be developing cord blood stem cells for regenerative medicine.
We have been able to develop some new strategies for producing tissues such as liver, nervous tissue and pancreatic tissue.
However, I am always completely honest and would say that our work is still at the research and development stage.
We are working as fast as we can to develop human protocols and all our work is done with human cord blood stem cells, but we are not yet in a position to put the cells into people yet for diabetes. Cord Blood is going into people in our centre for other disorders etc, but not yet for diabetics.
It has been very difficult over the years to get funding for this work and we work on a "shoestring budget" and this does slow us down, but I hope that we will be in a position either ourselves, or jointly with our collaborators to help patients with diabetes in the future.
With my very best wishes
Colin
Colin P.McGuckin
Professor of Regenerative Medicine
UK Centre for Cord Blood.
Haematological Sciences and the International Centre for Life
Medical School
Framlington Place
University of Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH
United Kingdom
Thank you for your kind reply Prof. I really appreciate that you took the time and effort to write back to me. I hope that you'll continue to get funded, succeed and proceed to human protocols soon. :)
Thursday, August 03, 2006
StemLife Blog Updates! Two Happy Stem Cell Patients
My apologies for the long hiatus! Its been very busy here at StemLife and I was reminded by colleagues that the StemLife blog was in need of my attention and that they were keen on knowing what news there was to share. The world of stem cell technology does not rest and whilst the recent events of war in the world have grabbed headline news, patients and stem cell followers have also had their fair share of updates.
In addition to the cord blood stem cell derived insulin secreting cell blog entry that I just published, I did see two other articles which I thought worthy of a mention.
ONE: Well done Dr. Suradej Hongeng in Thailand who has performed Thailand's first and most complicated triple stem cell (2 cord blood units + bone marrow from patient's mother) donor transplant for Thalassemia major. At only seven years old, the little boy who underwent the transplant at Ramathibodi hospital is already considered well enough after only 2 months in hospital. The cord blood units were only 80% matched with the patient's tissue type but the transplanted stem cells were well accepted and functioned after just 5 weeks post transplant.
In previous work, Ramathibodi had successfully treated 10 patients with blood disorders or cancers using cord blood stem cells from only one donor but has performed about 430 bone marrow transplants since the program commenced in 1989 according to Saengsuree Jootar. The limiting factors are almost rhetorical- high costs of the procedure ranging from Bt 300,000 to Bt 700,000 (approx. MYR 30K to 70K) and the well known challenges of finding a matching donor. The hospital does run a charity program of free transplants in honour of the Queen, in which 34 patients have already benefitted from the procedure.
TWO: Remember the Gary Schaer trial for heart that I keep mentioning? Well, in the last entry I asked how Rev. Eugene Carter was doing and I got my answer (it would be nice if he's decided to answer us because of the question posed in this blog!). He's doing just fine :)
EXCERPT:Last February, Carter needed his faith when he had a heart attack. He says, "I believe that anything that comes my way is there for a reason." So when doctors asked him to be in a study on stem cells just days after his heart attack, he said yes.
"The promise of stem cells is the promise that these cells could be given to grow new parts of the body that have been damaged," Gary Schaer, M.D., an interventional cardiologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, tells Ivanhoe.
Dr. Schaer and colleagues are giving heart attack patients stem cells from a healthy adult donor. The cells are delivered through an IV. Once infused, they zero in on damaged heart muscle and repair it. Stem cells have shown great promise in fixing damaged heart muscle in pigs.
"I have been doing this for a little more than 20 years, and this is the most exciting new development in a very exciting field," Dr. Schaer says. Studies have shown using a patient's own stem cells can treat heart failure. He says using a donor's stem cells to treat heart attacks is a new frontier.
Carter feels lucky to be part of the study. "What an opportunity to do something positive," he says, and if the treatment helps, he'll have even more to preach about.
Excellent news. Okay, now back to StemLife work!
In addition to the cord blood stem cell derived insulin secreting cell blog entry that I just published, I did see two other articles which I thought worthy of a mention.
ONE: Well done Dr. Suradej Hongeng in Thailand who has performed Thailand's first and most complicated triple stem cell (2 cord blood units + bone marrow from patient's mother) donor transplant for Thalassemia major. At only seven years old, the little boy who underwent the transplant at Ramathibodi hospital is already considered well enough after only 2 months in hospital. The cord blood units were only 80% matched with the patient's tissue type but the transplanted stem cells were well accepted and functioned after just 5 weeks post transplant.
In previous work, Ramathibodi had successfully treated 10 patients with blood disorders or cancers using cord blood stem cells from only one donor but has performed about 430 bone marrow transplants since the program commenced in 1989 according to Saengsuree Jootar. The limiting factors are almost rhetorical- high costs of the procedure ranging from Bt 300,000 to Bt 700,000 (approx. MYR 30K to 70K) and the well known challenges of finding a matching donor. The hospital does run a charity program of free transplants in honour of the Queen, in which 34 patients have already benefitted from the procedure.
TWO: Remember the Gary Schaer trial for heart that I keep mentioning? Well, in the last entry I asked how Rev. Eugene Carter was doing and I got my answer (it would be nice if he's decided to answer us because of the question posed in this blog!). He's doing just fine :)
EXCERPT:Last February, Carter needed his faith when he had a heart attack. He says, "I believe that anything that comes my way is there for a reason." So when doctors asked him to be in a study on stem cells just days after his heart attack, he said yes.
"The promise of stem cells is the promise that these cells could be given to grow new parts of the body that have been damaged," Gary Schaer, M.D., an interventional cardiologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, tells Ivanhoe.
Dr. Schaer and colleagues are giving heart attack patients stem cells from a healthy adult donor. The cells are delivered through an IV. Once infused, they zero in on damaged heart muscle and repair it. Stem cells have shown great promise in fixing damaged heart muscle in pigs.
"I have been doing this for a little more than 20 years, and this is the most exciting new development in a very exciting field," Dr. Schaer says. Studies have shown using a patient's own stem cells can treat heart failure. He says using a donor's stem cells to treat heart attacks is a new frontier.
Carter feels lucky to be part of the study. "What an opportunity to do something positive," he says, and if the treatment helps, he'll have even more to preach about.
Excellent news. Okay, now back to StemLife work!
Cord Blood Stem Cells generates Insulin producing cells
This piece of good news should cheer up diabetics who have been asking us whether cord blood stem cells can help in this lifelong disease. An Irish scientist, Professor Colin McGuckin announced a major breakthrough in demonstrating that cord blood stem cells are able to transform into cells that secrete insulin. This new finding should result in effective in providing insulin to patients from adult sources of stem cells. Prof McGuckin who is a Professor of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Newcastle will be presenting his work to the Catholic church leaders at the Augustinian Institute in Rome.
What is diabetes?
Essentially, diabetes is a condition where the body is unable to produce any (type 1) or enough insulin, or is unable to use the insulin properly (type 2). Insulin is a hormone manufactured and secreted by cells in the pancreas which acts as a signal for the body's cells to absorb blood sugar. If insulin is not produced in enough quantities, cells in the body may not be able to allow blood sugars in which starves the cells of energy.
Which parts of the body are most affected by diabetes?
All cells in the body will be affected by the lack of blood sugar entering the cell. Over time, high blood glucose levels injure blood vessels, resulting in damage to organs which are the most vascularized- eyes, heart, nerves, kidneys. Diabetics are also prone to developing foot ulcers due to poor circulation which increases their risk of limb amputation.
Why is stem cell work on insulin production important?
Diabetes is a chronic disease with symptoms resulting from a failing pancreas. The process is one of pancreatic organ failure and is degenerative in nature. Essentially, diabetics need to control their blood sugars strictly and ensure that they have sufficient levels of insulin (injectable) prior to every meal. Stem cells forming insulin secreting cells may be able to replace the damaged or dying insulin producing cells in the pancreas, thereby yielding long term cost savings in terms of drug therapy and convenience for the patient. Advantages also include non-rejection of tissue (unlike in a pancreas transplant) and the ability of the body to regain natural control over this very important process of hormonal regulation.
Furthermore, predictions and health monitoring from all over the world indicate that diabetes and its effects, is one of the top 3 killers or health burden of people in both developed and developing countries in the world today.
On another note, I'm also pleased that this Catholic Institution is taking the time to invite a notable speaker and hope that other religious organizations would do likewise. StemLife will be happy to provide information on stem cells and stem cell therapy to any religious insitution for the purpose of educating and more importantly, helping people whose condition and suffering may be alleviated by stem cell therapy.
What is diabetes?
Essentially, diabetes is a condition where the body is unable to produce any (type 1) or enough insulin, or is unable to use the insulin properly (type 2). Insulin is a hormone manufactured and secreted by cells in the pancreas which acts as a signal for the body's cells to absorb blood sugar. If insulin is not produced in enough quantities, cells in the body may not be able to allow blood sugars in which starves the cells of energy.
Which parts of the body are most affected by diabetes?
All cells in the body will be affected by the lack of blood sugar entering the cell. Over time, high blood glucose levels injure blood vessels, resulting in damage to organs which are the most vascularized- eyes, heart, nerves, kidneys. Diabetics are also prone to developing foot ulcers due to poor circulation which increases their risk of limb amputation.
Why is stem cell work on insulin production important?
Diabetes is a chronic disease with symptoms resulting from a failing pancreas. The process is one of pancreatic organ failure and is degenerative in nature. Essentially, diabetics need to control their blood sugars strictly and ensure that they have sufficient levels of insulin (injectable) prior to every meal. Stem cells forming insulin secreting cells may be able to replace the damaged or dying insulin producing cells in the pancreas, thereby yielding long term cost savings in terms of drug therapy and convenience for the patient. Advantages also include non-rejection of tissue (unlike in a pancreas transplant) and the ability of the body to regain natural control over this very important process of hormonal regulation.
Furthermore, predictions and health monitoring from all over the world indicate that diabetes and its effects, is one of the top 3 killers or health burden of people in both developed and developing countries in the world today.
On another note, I'm also pleased that this Catholic Institution is taking the time to invite a notable speaker and hope that other religious organizations would do likewise. StemLife will be happy to provide information on stem cells and stem cell therapy to any religious insitution for the purpose of educating and more importantly, helping people whose condition and suffering may be alleviated by stem cell therapy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
