First Stem-Cell Therapy Approved For Medical Use In Europe

The first stem-cell therapy has been approved by European regulators in a major step forward for advanced medicine in Britain. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recommended Holoclar, a treatment in which a patient’s own healthy stem cells are used to grow new cells which are then transplanted into the eye.

It is a major step forward for stem-cell therapies which have so far being confined to the lab and clinical trials. Experts predicted advanced treatments will be available on the NHS within a few years.

“This is exciting both because there are no other treatments for this sort of damage to the eye and because this is the first example in which a ‘medicine’ based on stem cells has been approved for use in humans,” Professor Graham McGeown, Reader in Physiology, Centre for Experimental Medicine, Queen's University Belfast.

“Because the cells come from the patient themselves, there should be no worries that the body will reject them as can happen when using a transplant from another person.

“This treatment will only be allowed under carefully defined conditions, however, so that the outcomes can be carefully monitored to see if the treatment works and doesn’t have any unexpected side-effects.”

Stem cells can act as a repair system for the body.

Limbal stem cells are located in the eye at the border between the cornea – the clear front part of the eye - and the sclera – the white of the eye.

Physical or chemical burns can cause loss of these stem cells, resulting in limbal stem cell deficiency, LSCD, a condition that is estimated to affect about 3.3 out of 100,000 people in the European Union and around 650 people in Britain.

Symptoms include pain, sensitivity to light, inflammation, excessive blood vessel growth, clouding of the cornea, and eventually blindness.

In LSCD the limbal stem cells become so diminished that they eyes can no longer make new cells to repair damage.

The new treatment takes a small sample of the patients healthy cornea, removes the stem cells and grows them until there are sufficient numbers to put back into the eye. The cells themselves then repair the damage.

Moorfields Eye Hospital in London has successfully treated around 20 people with Holocar so far in trials.

Prof Chris Mason, from University College London, told the BBC: "This move would enable far more people to access it, you could now prescribe this."

The EMA decision to approve Holoclar will now be sent to the European Commission for market authorization. It will then be up to Nice to decide whether to approve the therapy for use on the NHS.

Dr Dusko Ilic, Reader in Stem Cell Science, King's College London, said: “The therapeutic approach on which Holoclar is based is relatively well established and it was just a question of when it would be approved by regulatory agencies.

“It has been performed in multiple academic institutions around the world, including the UK. I hope that Holoclar is not just an exception, and that many more cellular therapy products will see market in the next year.”

Holoclar, has been developed by the Italian pharmaceutical company Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A.

Enrica Alteri, Head of EMA’s Human Medicines Evaluation Division said the decision represented a ‘major step forward’ for stem cell therapies.

Source by : http://goo.gl/D4wySn

Stem Cell Banking of Menstrual Blood Cells

Stem cells in the menstrual blood are extremely proliferation and hold a unique capability of developing into a variety of healthy cells. These valuable stem cells are discarded during a woman’s menstrual cycle. It is a lesser known fact that the stem cells in menstrual blood have similar regenerative ability like the stem cells in umbilical cord blood and bone marrow. Women in their reproductive years can preserve these cells for future use for her or possibly a family member in need.

Using a medical-grade silicone cup in place of a tampon or sanitary napkin, the menstrual blood is collected in a physician’s office. For safety measures during storage, the menstrual stem cells are collected from a single sample and processed, purified, harvested, amplified and correctly stored. The over wrapped vials are cryogenically preserved in a facility that is closely supervised round the clock to make sure that your menstrual stem cells are safe and ready for future use. Over the years, these cells have been utilized widely for various cosmetic procedures.

Each month during a woman’s menstrual period, the uterine lining – Endometrium is shed along with the surplus blood and tissues. This lining of the uterus possesses a huge number of mesenchymal stem cells and numerous thousand fold high concentration of stem cell growth factors. These cells from the endometrium are distinctive and unique because they have several properties and characteristics similar to bone marrow and embryonic stem cells. The aim of mesenchymal cell therapy is to treat diseases of non-hematopoietic tissues in an analogous fashion to treating leukemia with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Menstrual stem cells possess the potential to differentiate into possibly every other cell type in the human body making them very useful to treat future diseases.

Banking your cells at a renowned stem cell bank that offers women with an extensive opportunity to build their own healthcare portfolio will also help in preserving it for a long run and making it readily available for future use. Considering the relevance and importance in treatment of rare and chronic diseases that include certain neuro disorders, it has become crucial for women to preserve their menstrual blood in the menstrual blood bank.