Stem Cell Blog

Употребата на матичните клетки од папочна врвца рапидно се зголемува. Пред 10 години крвта од папочна врвца можеше да лекува околу 40 состојби, но денес таа бројка е над 80. Со нетрпение очекуваме нови терапии за болести и нарушувања како што се дијабет, аутизам и мозочен удар, можете да бидете во тек со најновите случувања во регенеративната медицина на нашиот блог за матични клетки.



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In a study first published in April’s edition of Advanced Functional Materials, researchers found that stem cells boost natural repair following cardiac arrest.

The most common consequence of cardiac arrest is brain injury. Decreased blood flow and oxygen to the brain can result in damage to specific areas such as the temporal lobe, which is responsible for memories. [1]

According to the British Heart Foundation, there are around 30,000 out of hospital cardiac arrests in the UK per year, with survival rates of only 1 in 10.

While there are currently steps towards improving these survival rates – mainly public awareness and educational campaigns focused on immediate response [2] – better survival rates potentially means more patients suffering from brain injury, which can range in severity.

What researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in the U.S. have found is that neural stem cells can help with repairing post-cardiac arrest brain damage when their carbohydrate structure is manipulated. [3]

In an animal study using rats, scientists applied sugar molecules to the neural stem cells in a process called glycoengineering.

It’s thought that the application of these sugar molecules provide the neural stem cells with a better chance of retention and integration within the harsh microenvironment of the brain.

Researchers examined the efficacy of the ‘sugar-coated’ neural stem cells that had been pretreated with TProp (the name of the modified sugar molecule applied) with naive human neural stem cells.

They found through subsequent testing that the stem cells that had been pretreated with TProp improved brain function substantially, along with reducing anxiety and depression-related behaviours.

The ability for synapses to modify the strength of their connections (otherwise known as synapse plasticity) also improved, with the TProp group also demonstrating a reduction in neuroinflammation in the central nervous system.

Overall, the findings from the University of Maryland are promising as they indicate that these glycoengineered stem cells could help regenerate connections between synapses in the brain that have been affected by cardiac arrest related injury in humans.

The next steps will involve tests on larger animals before hopefully moving to a clinical study.

If you want to know more about how you can save your baby’s powerful stem cells, fill out the form below for your free welcome pack.

References

[1] (2023, July 7). Can a heart attack cause brain damage? Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/heart-attack-brain-damage#effects

[2] Horriar, Lina et al. “Improving survival after cardiac arrest in Europe: The synergetic effect of rescue chain strategies.” Resuscitation plus vol. 17 100533. 21 Dec. 2023, doi:10.1016/j.resplu.2023.100533

[3] (2024, May 9). Stem Cell Therapy Boosts Natural Repair After Cardiac Arrest. University of Maryland Baltimore. https://www.umaryland.edu/news/archived-news/may-2024/stem-cell-therapy-boosts-natural-repair-after-cardiac-arrest.php


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It was announced this week that researchers at the University of East London had managed to grow a “heart” using stem cells.

This breakthrough could be instrumental in paving the way for life-saving research into heart disease treatments, with stem cells playing a pivotal role in the future of cardiovascular research.

According to the British Heart Foundation, there are over 170,000 deaths linked to heart and circulatory diseases each year. That’s 480 each day, or 1 every 3 minutes.

With 7.6 million people in the UK living with heart and circulatory diseases, progress in the field of cardiovascular medicine can’t come soon enough. [1]

Because the grown stem cell “heart” has the same characteristics as a normal human heart, scientists are hoping that it can be a more ethical, accurate alternative to the use of animal specimens in research.

This is the latest development in a long line of investigations into the application of stem cells to grow heart tissue.

Last April, researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and Imperial College London set about evaluating how human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) could be used to grow left ventricular heart muscle cells. [2]

Their findings suggested that, with the right environment, stem cells are able to differentiate successfully into the cells that make up the left ventricle of the heart, the area most commonly affected by heart disease [3]

In August of last year, a team of researchers from various Israeli institutions had grown a small, yet complete and beating, model of a heart using stem cells. They were even able to fit sensors to the model to monitor its behaviour. [4]

These so-called organoid hearts, grown from stem cells, are incredibly useful in finding treatments and therapies for cardiovascular diseases because of their likeness to human hearts.

Although these “grown” hearts are a lot smaller than human hearts, their construction and makeup reflects the different chambers, tissues and cells that make up a human heart far more accurately. This makes them better in experiments for developing medicine for heart disease than animal samples.

The team at The University of East London are also looking to develop an AI in conjunction with the stem cell heart to monitor intricate changes to cells that could indicate the onset of heart disease. [5]

With thousands of clinical trials currently underway for the application of cord blood and perinatal stem cells in regenerative medicine, it’s possible that your baby’s umbilical cord and placenta hold the key to unlocking their access to the treatments of the future.

Find out more about how storing your baby’s stem cells could safeguard their health for life by downloading our FREE Welcome Pack below.

Sources

[1] (2024, January 1). Heart Statistics. British Heart Foundation. https://www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/our-research/heart-statistics

[2] Ingham, K. (2023, April 26). A heartbeat in a dish – growing specialised heart cells. Imperial College London. https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/244579/heartbeat-dish-growing-specialised-heart-cells/

[3] Nicola Dark, et al., Generation of left ventricle-like cardiomyocytes with improved structural, functional, and metabolic maturity from human pluripotent stem cells, Cell Reports Methods, Volume 3, Issue 4, 2023, 100456, ISSN 2667-2375

[4] Ghosheh, M., Ehrlich, A., Ioannidis, K. et al. Electro-metabolic coupling in multi-chambered vascularized human cardiac organoids. Nat. Biomed. Eng 7, 1493–1513 (2023)

[5] Keane, D. (2024, February 19). Heart disease breakthrough as scientists grow ‘heart in a dish’ using stem cells in London lab. The Standard. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/university-east-london-scientists-heart-dish-stem-cells-b1139981.html


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A new study conducted by researchers at the Mayo Clinic has found that stem cell treatment for patients with advanced heart failure offers an improved quality of life.

As many as 100,000 people are admitted to hospital in the UK every year due to heart attacks [1]. Heart attacks can lead to heart failure, where damage to cardiac muscles makes it harder for blood to be pumped around the body.