Blog | HemaCare

An independent publication cites the use of bone marrow and mobilized peripheral blood sourced from HemaCare in a study aimed at improving the efficiency of resource consumption in gene therapy.

The publication, published in the journal Molecular Therapy, focuses on the use of lentiviral vector (LV) to introduce corrected versions of defective genes into stem cells. The goal of gene therapy is to transplant these stem cells into people suffering from genetic disease, in hopes of restoring the function of the faulty gene. One of the main challenges in this clinical strategy is the cost; substantial amounts of LV are needed to modify a therapeutically effective dose of stem cells.

After suffering from a heart attack, patients may eventually have a treatment option which uses their own stem cells to repair and restore heart muscle tissue.

According to the Centers for Disease control, over 600,000 people in the U.S. die yearly from heart disease, and 735,000 Americans have a heart attack each year. Acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) occurs when blood flow to the heart muscle is blocked leading to damage to the heart muscle tissue.  The heart tries to heal after an infarction, but this involves the formation of scar tissue that does not restore adequate function to the heart. The advancement of regenerative medicine using adult stem cells for cardiac tissue repair has the potential to provide a means to repair heart tissue in a way that returns full heart muscle cell function.

Stem-cells and MS are widely discussed, but we might be finally getting closer to stem-cell treatments for MS patients.

Stem cell therapies are investigated for their potential to provide long-lasting or permanent remission of multiple sclerosis (MS) signs and symptoms. Many patients are well-informed of the potential of stem cell therapy for MS, and many seek treatments abroad that are promoted to give positive or curative outcomes. There are also clinics in the US that provide treatments that are outside of FDA-approved uses. The only FDA-approved, stem-cell based products used in the US consist of CD34+ stem cells derived from cord blood.

Systemic sclerosis, also called scleroderma, progressive systemic sclerosis, or CREST syndrome, is a rare autoimmune connective tissue disease with fibrosis and vasculopathy. Patients often have sclerotic, thickened skin, but some experience significant organ damage. Immunosuppressive therapy is a common approach to patients with systemic sclerosis, but there is a subset of patients that do not respond well to treatment.

A recent independent study cites using HemaCare-sourced immune cells to investigate a protein involved in gene activation during hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) development. ^[1]

The study, published by scientists at the Yokohama Institute in Japan, is focused on the function of a protein known as RUNX1. The reason RUNX1 is of particular interest is that it’s implicated in the development of a number of different types of cancer, including breast cancer, skin cancer, and acute myeloid leukemia. ^[2] In the latter case, defects in the gene that codes for the RUNX1 protein disrupt stem cell differentiation. This means that instead of normal development into mature cell types, there is a massive build-up of blast cells in the bone marrow, which is the hallmark of leukemia. Scientists have known since 2001 ^[3] that the RUNX1 protein is involved in the differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells into mature blood cells. But in order to target RUNX1’s role in cancer development, researchers need a much more in-depth knowledge of exactly how the protein is exerting its function.