EMBRYONIC stem cells have been used to treat human illness for the first time, improving the sight of two women with severe vision loss.
The controversial development could give hope to hundreds of thousands of people suffering macular degeneration – one of the most common forms of blindness in First World countries – and has been hailed a historic step by stem cell scientists.
In a US trial last year, two legally blind women reported sight improvements after receiving a small dose of embryonic stem cell transplantations in their eyes.
Both had different forms of macular degeneration, a group of diseases that affect the retina, causing loss of central vision.
After the transplant in July, the first woman, who suffers from dry age-related macular degeneration, went from being able to read 21 letters on a sight test chart to 28. The second woman, who has Stargardt’s disease, went from being unable to read any letters to reading five. While the scientists who conducted the study are cautious about the results, tests indicate that healthy cells have grown where the treatment was injected.
They said the patients had shown no negative reactions.
The study, reported in The Lancet this week, was led by Robert Lanza, the chief scientific officer at Advanced Cell Technology in the US – the stem cell company that funded the trial.
The research has taken place amid debate about whether the stem cells should be used because they are derived from five- to six-day-old human embryos.
The disease affects one in seven people over 50, the Macular Degeneration Foundation says.
The West Australian government has orders an independent audit
into management of state housing tenants after the skeletal remains of an elderly man were discovered in a unit up to two years after his death.
Seventy-five-year-old Robert Roll’s corpse went undetected until July 7, despite neighbours urging housing department officials to check on him.
Housing Minister Troy Buswell said he was not satisfied with the explanation provided by the Department of Housing, whose records incorrectly stated that Mr Roll’s home had been inspected in 2010.
“The information I received contained discrepancies in regard to the last contact the department had with Mr Roll, and my main concern is that the department’s systems showed that an inspection was undertaken in 2010, when an inspection did not actually occur,” Mr Buswell said.
“Whether this was caused due to human error or improper actions, we need to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
“The audit will examine the circumstances around the discovery of Mr Roll’s body, as well as the department’s tenancy management actions throughout the history of Mr Rolls’ tenancy.
“It will also look at the actions taken to identify and test safety devices in Mr Roll’s unit, and overall tenancy management at the complex at 601 Wellington Street.”
The audit will also consider the extent to which the department has implemented the recommendations of the Auditor General’s 2010 report into the fitting and maintenance of safety devices, records systems and procedures such as property inspections.
“While the department is finalising a report on its own response to the Auditor General’s report, it seems logical to have an independent body also scrutinise this response, particularly when we are engaging someone to look at similar issues relating to Mr Roll’s case,” he said.
“I expect the audit will identify any key concerns or weaknesses in the department’s management of Mr Roll’s tenancy and any continuing issues around systems and procedures, with recommendations as to how these may be improved.”
The audit will be undertaken by KPMG. It will commence this month and is expected to take eight weeks.
Police said last month that it appeared Mr Roll had cancer and died of natural causes. A report has been prepared for the WA coroner.
They have since established Mr Roll was a former boilermaker, believed to be from Newcastle in England’s north but had moved to Australia several decades ago.
Residents in the same apartment block began to grow concerned when Mr Roll’s mail began piling up.
Nasal Screens help you keep your nose clean
Nobody likes having pollen or dust allergies, nor do they enjoy suffering through airborne viruses such as colds or the flu. One approach to lessening the likelihood of being bothered by either of these conditions is to wear a mouth and nose mask, but that could get rather awkward and uncomfortable, plus it would make you look kind of funny in some situations. If you’re OK with still looking a little funny, however, you might be interested in slapping on a pair of First Defense Nasal Screens – that’s right, we’re talking nostril filters.
Blood transfusions may one day come from blood produced from a patient’s skin
A new technique that allows blood to be made directly from skin cells has been discovered. The pioneering approach by Canadian researchers uses human skin stem cells to create blood stem cells without an intermediate step that previously was thought necessary.
Until now to make blood stem cells, the building blocks for a variety human cells (called pluripotent stem cells) have been used as a steppingstone a process. This has proven largely inefficient, but research led by Mick Bhatia, scientific director ofMcMaster’s Stem Cell and Cancer Research Instituteat the Michael G DeGroote School of Medicine, has shown that making blood from skin can be achieved in a one step process.
Cynthia Dunbar, head of the molecular hematopoiesis at the U.S National Institutes of Health said: “Bhatia’s approach detours around the pluripotent stem cell stage and thus avoids many safety issues, increases efficiency, and also has the major benefit of producing adult-type l blood cells instead of fetal blood cells, a major advantage compared to the thus far disappointing attempts to produce blood cells from human embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells.”
The discovery was replicated several times over two years using human skin from both the young and the elderly to prove it works for any age of person.
The approach could be used for creating blood for surgery or treating conditions like anemia from a patch of the patient’s skin. Other potential applications include generating bone marrow and improved treatment of leukaemia and other types of cancer, including solid tumors.
“We have shown this works using human skin. We know how it works and believe we can even improve on the process,” Bhatia said. “We’ll now go on to work on developing other types of human cell types from skin, as we already have encouraging evidence.”
“This finding will no doubt be met with excitement in the research and medical communities,” said Michael Rudnicki, director of The Stem Cell Network. “It’s been nearly 50 years since blood stem cells were first identified here in Canada and it’s fitting that this incredible new discovery should have happened here as well.”
The research was published in Nature on November 7.
The “house of horrors”… The Women’s Medical Society in Philadelphia, where Dr Kermit Gosnell allegedly made millions from abortions. Photo: AP
A US doctor, who gave abortions to minorities, immigrants and poor women in a “house of horrors” clinic, has been charged with eight counts of murder over the deaths of a patient and seven babies who were born alive and then killed with scissors, prosecutors say.
Dr Kermit Gosnell, 69, made millions of dollars over 30 years, performing as many illegal, late-term abortions as he could, prosecutors said.
State regulators ignored complaints about him and failed to inspect his clinic since 1993, but no charges were warranted against them given time limits and existing law, District Attorney Seth Williams said.
Nine of Gosnell’s employees were also charged.
Gosnell “induced labour, forced the live birth of viable babies in the sixth, seventh, eighth month of pregnancy and then killed those babies by cutting into the back of the neck with scissors and severing their spinal cord”, Williams said.
Patients were subjected to squalid and barbaric conditions at Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society, where Gosnell performed dozens of abortions a day, prosecutors said. He mostly worked overnight hours after his untrained staff administered drugs to induce labour during the day, they said.
Early last year, authorities went to investigate drug-related complaints at the clinic and stumbled on what Williams called a “house of horrors”.
Bags and bottles holding aborted foetuses “were scattered throughout the building,” Williams said. “There were jars, lining shelves, with severed feet that he kept for no medical purpose.”
The clinic was shut down and Gosnell’s medical licence was suspended after the raid.
Gosnell and four workers were charged with murder, while five others were charged with controlled drug violations and other crimes. None of the employees had any medical training, and one, a high school student, performed intravenous anaesthesia with potentially lethal narcotics, Williams said.
All 10 defendants were taken into custody, authorities said.
Two listed numbers for Gosnell in Philadelphia have been disconnected. Defence lawyer William J. Brennan, who represented Gosnell during the investigation, noted that the doctor served patients in a low-income city neighbourhood for decades.
“Obviously, these allegations are very, very serious,” Brennan said.
The grand jury said the woman who died was a patient who came to Gosnell’s clinic for an abortion and died of cardiac arrest because she was given too much Demerol. Gosnell wasn’t at the clinic at the time, but directed his staff to administer the drug to keep the woman, a healthy 41-year-old, sedated until he arrived, prosecutors said.
Gosnell has been named in at least 46 malpractice suits, including one over the death of a 22-year-old mother who died of sepsis and a perforated uterus in 2000. Many others also involve perforated uteruses. Gosnell sometimes sewed up the injury without telling women their uteruses had been perforated, prosecutors said.
Gosnell charged $325 for first-trimester abortions and $1600 to $3000 for abortions up to 30 weeks. Abortions are legal up to 24 weeks gestation in Pennsylvania, although most doctors won’t perform them after 20 weeks, prosecutors said.
Some women came from across the mid-Atlantic for the illegal late-term abortions, authorities said. White women from the suburbs were ushered into a separate, slightly cleaner area because Gosnell believed they were more likely to file complaints, Williams said.
“People knew near and far that if you needed a late-term abortion you could go see Dr Gosnell,” Williams said.
Few if any of the sedated women knew their babies were born alive and then killed, prosecutors said. Many were first-time mothers who were told they were 24 weeks pregnant, even if they were further along, authorities said.
Gosnell got his medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and is board certified in family practice. He started, but did not finish, a residency in obstetrics-gynaecologic, authorities said.
“He does not know how to do an abortion. He’s not board certified,” Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore said. “Once he got them there, he saw dollar signs and did abortions that other people wouldn’t do.”
GOUT CAN BE EASILY TREATED WITH COMMON SENSE & COMMON FOODS
Gout is a serious illness that is caused by abnormal uric acid levels in the body, particularly in the joints. This condition usually affects the big toe of an individual. It occurs in two ways: one is when the liver secretes abnormally high levels of uric acid than what the body can excrete in the urine; the second reason for the high levels of uric acid inside the body is when an individual consumes purine-rich foods (such as red meat and red wine) than what the kidney can strain from the blood which ultimately leads to accumulation.
A person having gouty arthritis, as it is commonly known, experiences a severe pain felt on the affected body part. This condition could also possibly disable a person who has it, and can significantly affect a person’s quality of life. Unfortunately, most people do not take gout seriously. This is a severe matter to think of. Aside from that, the prevalence of this condition is quite high. In fact, there have been reports stating that about 840 individuals out of 100,000 individuals are diagnosed with this disease.
Another concern among individuals who have gout is the presence of “gout attacks”. Gout attacks occur irregularly. Although some people experience gout attacks between months or years, this can happen frequently, overtime. When left untreated, frequent gout attacks can damage your joints permanently that can lead to disability.
Common Signs and Symptoms
If you are unfamiliar with this condition, it would be important to know its signs and symptoms. This will help you understand and easily determine whether you are already experiencing a gout attack or not. One of the most common signs of gout is the appearance of a swollen, hot and reddish joint. This usually affects your big toe. However, almost all joints can be affected with this condition.
Other symptoms of gout include inflammation, swelling, redness, stiffness and pain on any joint in your body. Usually, people experiencing a gout attack feel tremendous pain on the affected joint. In fact, even the slightest movement of the affected joint can be excruciating. The interval of gout attack varies. However, initial gout attack usually occurs between months to a year.
Polyphenols – Reducing Gout Risks
A research study conducted at Japan’s Hyogo College of Medicine discovered that the branded form of polyphenols (Oligonol) can radically lower the excretion of uric acid in just a matter of an hour, accompanied by a decrease in uric acid concentration found in the serum. This study was published in the Journal of Functional Food.
Polyphenol is a substance found in most plant foods that exhibits anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic and anti-microbial properties. However, there have been no studies dedicated in determining polyphenols’ effects on uric acid metabolism in vivo.
The current study led by Yuji Moriwaki and other research experts aimed to determine whether Oligonol, a phenolic substance extracted from lychee that has extremely high bioavailability as compared to typical polyphenols, can decrease uric acid excretion and serum concentration. Aside from reporting a significant reduction in uric acid excretion and decreased serum concentration, Moriwaki and fellow researchers also reported that polyphenols could also withdraw xanthine oxidase activity. This is an enzyme that can catalyze xanthine oxidation to uric acid.
In conclusion, the researchers have concluded that Oligonol can effectively lower uric acid production as well as the serum concentration in uric acid. However, the exact method as to how this happens is still unknown. The researchers further recommend that more studies should be conducted in order to determine whether long-term consumption of Oligonol could help prevent the development of gout in individuals.
Natural Ways of Preventing Gout Risks
There are different medications that can help treat and prevent gout risks. Unfortunately, these medications can have some side effects. This is the main reason why the use of natural methods to prevent gout is highly recommended. Aside from preventing gout risks, these natural methods are also proven to have no side effects.
One way of preventing gout risks naturally is to change your diet. Having an anti-gout diet is essential in helping you avoid gout risks. Avoid foods that may increase your uric acid level such as fish eggs, haddocks, sardines, herrings, anchovies and cod. Scallops, lobster, shrimp, and tuna are also linked with gout risks.
Eating fruits that have anti-gout properties would also reduce your risk of developing one. Cherries and strawberries are said to be examples of these fruits.
You should also avoid foods high in purine. These kinds of foods can also increase your uric acid level. Examples of such foods are those that contain high amounts of purine such as organs like brain, kidney and liver as well as meat products like lamb, pork and beef.
Avoid consuming too much alcohol since this could also help prevent gout risks.
Drinking plenty of water is important. It helps cleanse your kidneys and at the same time, helps reduce the uric acid level on your body.
Vitamin C is also proven to prevent gout. The role of Vitamin C is that it helps excrete uric acid through your urine. At the same time, it also reduces the levels of uric acid present in the bloodstream. This means that Vitamin C does not only help you prevent gout risks but it also helps you manage gout attacks.
Eating pineapple can also help reduce your chances of developing gout. Pineapples have a substance called bromelain that is an anti-inflammatory enzyme. This property helps reduce the inflammation caused by gout.
Once a gout attack has occurred, the accompanying pain can cause one to miss work, or may hinder one from performing activities of daily living. But know that more options are available from you aside from taking pharmaceutical drugs – generally effective, and safer options. There are ways in order to help you deal with the pain. For example, placing an ice pack on the affected area for 10 minutes can help soothe the pain you are feeling. You may then apply it alternately with a hot, moist towel compress. Other means include the use of spearmint, Mullein leaves, apple cider vinegar and cayenne pepper.
Dec 17 – A San Diego-based company is breaking new ground in the field of regenerative medicine with a system that uses patients’ own body fat to generate stem cells and repair tissue and organs. Ben Gruber reports.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (UPI) — U.S. researchers say they’ve developed a new heart pump that could help infants born with congenital heart defects survive necessary surgeries.
Scientists at Purdue University have created a “viscous impeller pump” for children born with univentricular circulation, a congenital heart disease that is the leading cause of death from birth defects in the first year of a child’s life, a university release said Tuesday.
The normal human heart contains two pumping chambers, called ventricles.
One circulates oxygenated blood throughout the body, while the other less-powerful ventricle circulates deoxygenated blood to the lungs.
Children born with univentricular circulation have only one functioning ventricle but can survive if blood vessels in the heart are restructured in a series of open-heart surgeries.
At least 30 percent of babies do not survive the surgeries, called the Fontan procedures.
To improve the survival rate, Purdue engineers and researchers developed the new mechanical pump to assist the heart during surgeries.
“A big advantage of this pump is that it gets delivered through the skin with a catheter without open heart surgery,” Steven Frankel, a Purdue University professor of mechanical engineering, said.
“It is designed to be in the body for two weeks at most, almost like a disposable item,” Frankel said.
The researchers have received a $2.1 million, four-year grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to continue developing the heart pump, Purdue said.
A new study is pushing a cut-rate version of the colonoscopy — and while it might save your insurance company big money, don’t count on it to save your life.
It’s called sigmoidoscopy, and it can cost as little as $250 versus $1,000 for a colonoscopy and anesthesia. Researchers say their analysis of studies involving hundreds of patients finds that this newer procedure is just as effective as colonoscopy at reducing deaths by colon cancer.
Both procedures use a camera on a tube inserted into your hindquarters, but that’s where the similarities end — because while colonoscopies involve a thorough examination of the entire colon, the bargain-basement version only looks at the lower third.
Hey, you’ve seen one part of the colon, you’ve seen it all, right?
Not on your life! Any gastroenterologist worth his scope will tell you that they often find polyps and other growths in the part of the colon skipped by the sigmoidoscopy.
An amateur, on the other hand, will miss polyps no matter where they grow… and that’s how we got this study.
You see, the researchers didn’t look at colonoscopies done here in the United States, where they’re performed by specialists such as gastroenterologists. Nope — all the patients in this review were overseas, where colonoscopies are done by general practitioners.
You’ve got a camera, I’ve got a tube — let’s have a rectal exam!
Take it from me — you know I have no great love of cancer screenings, and I’m against nearly all of them. But colonoscopies work, plain and simple, and they work so well there’s simply no reason to trust your hiney to any cheap, unproven alternatives — no matter how much the insurance companies might love them.
So forget sigmoidoscopies, virtual colonoscopies, and any other gimmick that comes along and get a plain old colonoscopy from a doctor with a proven track record.
JENA, Germany (UPI) — Amputees suffering from “phantom pain” may get relief from a modified prosthetic that can convince the brain the body part still exists, researchers say.
Scientists at the University of Jena in Germany say phantom pain often lasts for years, and sometimes for a lifetime, often putting amputees at risk of mediation addiction from high dosages of painkillers, a university release said Friday.
Researchers say they’ve produced a modified prosthetic hand than can reduce phantom pain following amputation by using a stimulation unit in the hand’s cuff connected to the remaining part of the upper arm.
Modern prosthetic hands have pressure sensors meant to regulate the strength of grip of the artificial hand depending on what the wearer is trying to pick up, such as a raw egg or a hammer.
The stimulation unit in the modified hand takes feedback from the sensors and “talks” to the wearer’s brain, Dr. Gunther Hofmann of the Jena Department for Trauma, Hand and Reconstructive Surgery says.
“Our system is now able to transmit this sensory information from the hand to the upper arm,” Hofmann says.
Brain structures responsible for processing sensory information coming from the lost body part are “out of work” following an amputation and try to reorganize themselves, often leading to sensations of pain in a “phantom” hand, the Jena researchers say. By giving the appropriate brain structure sensory input from the “hand” it is meant to control, the reorganization can be prevented or reversed, thus eliminated phantom pain, they say.
The “house of horrors”… The Women’s Medical Society in Philadelphia, where Dr Kermit Gosnell allegedly made millions from abortions. Photo: AP
