Has stem cell transplantation come of age in the treatment of sickle cell disease?

Vincent submitted, created time 1 year 2 months (www.nature.com)

Currently, hematopoietic SCT (HCT) is the only intervention that can restore normal hematopoiesis to provide a 'cure' in sickle cell disease. Yet, this treatment modality is used sparsely—a total of less than 400 transplants are reported in the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research database despite 70 000 afflicted in the United States; 88% of transplants are from HLA-matched sibling donors and 84% are <16 years of age at transplant

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New Reports: stem cell find missing link

captainclaw submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.theaustralian.news.com.au)

A NEW type of stem cell just discovered in rats and mice is the biological "missing link" between human and rodent embryonic stem cells.The claim comes from two independent teams of British, US and Swedish scientists who predict their discovery will crank up the pace of medical discovery, bringing embryonic stem cell therapies closer to reality.

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Autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation fails to stop demyelination and neurodegeneration in multiple sclerosis

julie submitted, created time 1 year 7 months (brain.oxfordjournals.org)

"The present study analyses autopsy material from five multiple sclerosis patients who received autologous stem cell transplantation. A total of 53 white matter lesions were investigated using routine and immunohistochemical stainings to characterize the demyelinating activity, inflammatory infiltrates, acutely damaged axons and macrophages/microglial cells. We found evidence for ongoing active demyelination in all of the five patients. The inflammatory infiltrate within the lesions showed only very few T cells and CD8+ cytotoxic T cells dominated the T cell population

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CTLA-4 polymorphisms and clinical outcome after allogeneic stem cell transplantation from HLA-identical sibling donors

collapsar submitted, created time 1 year 9 months (bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org)

"CTLA-4 is an inhibitory molecule that downregulates T-cell activation. Although polymorphisms at CTLA-4 have been correlated with autoimmune diseases their association with clinical outcome after allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) has yet to be explored. Five CTLA-4 single-nucleotide polymorphisms were genotyped on 536 HLA-identical sibling donors of allo-HSCT. Genotypes were tested for an association with patients' post-transplant outcome. The effect of the polymorphisms on CTLA-4 mRNA and protein production were determined in 60 healthy controls

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