W. L. Gore & Associates (Gore) reported the first clinical uses in Australia of the GORE C3 Delivery System to deploy the GORE EXCLUDER AAA Endoprosthesis as a minimally invasive treatment for patients suffering from an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). The recent procedures were successfully performed by vascular surgeons at medical centers of excellence around Australia. This game-changing new technology represents a leap forward in medical innovation by allowing physicians to position the device to the specific anatomy of each individual patient.

“The new system allowed us to reposition the GORE EXCLUDER Device to support cannulation of the contralateral gate. Deployment of the device remains straightforward and easy to use and provides us with greater control, as well as positioning flexibility, during the procedure.”

The GORE C3 Delivery System provides the clinician with the ability to reposition the GORE EXCLUDER Device prior to final release from the delivery catheter. The added deployment control provides physicians increased confidence in treating challenging anatomies, as well as cannulation options with the ability to bring the contralateral gate to the contralateral guidewire. Once delivered into the aorta, the GORE C3 Delivery System uniquely and intuitively enables repositioning of the stent-graft. The ability to reposition the device can minimize complications that could occur if the graft needs to be repositioned after the initial deployment.

The first Australian procedures to treat patients with an AAA using the new system were performed by:

* Geoff White, MD and Gavin O’Brien, MD, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown

* Marek Garbowski, MD and Lorraine Corfield, MD, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth

According to Professor White, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, a 72-year-old male with an abdominal aneurysm successfully received the first GORE EXCLUDER AAA Endoprosthesis featuring C3 Delivery System in Australia. “The new system allowed us to reposition the GORE EXCLUDER Device to support cannulation of the contralateral gate. Deployment of the device remains straightforward and easy to use and provides us with greater control, as well as positioning flexibility, during the procedure.”

Mr. Garbowski, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth, commented, “We used the unique ability to reposition the GORE EXCLUDER Device, increasing our proximal placement accuracy beyond what would have been possible with a single deployment. This feature will increase our confidence in treating challenging aortic neck anatomies.”

The GORE EXCLUDER Device remains virtually unchanged, maintaining the same low delivery profile and flexibility on catheter that facilitates access and passage through narrow and tortuous anatomies. Once delivered into the aorta, the GORE C3 Delivery System uniquely and intuitively enables repositioning of the stent-graft during the procedure. The ability to reposition the device may minimize complications that could occur if the graft needs to be repositioned after the initial deployment. This revolutionary technology was designed to give physicians a second or third opportunity to accurately place the stent graft relative to the patient’s anatomy.

More than 112,000 GORE EXCLUDER Devices have been distributed worldwide since 1997. The GORE EXCLUDER AAA Endoprosthesis is constructed of a durable ePTFE bifurcated graft with an outer self-expanding nitinol support structure which provides both device flexibility and material durability. The function of the endoprosthesis is to internally reline the abdominal aorta, including the bifurcation, and isolate the aneurysm from blood circulation. The device is inserted by a catheter-based delivery technique through small incisions in the patient’s legs.

Products listed may not be available in all markets. GORE®, C3, EXCLUDER®, and designs are trademarks of W. L. Gore & Associates.

Source:
W. L. Gore & Associates

Practical Animal Handling – Online Tutorial

The BVA AWF have launched an online tutorial on practical animal handling which has been prepared in conjunction with Newcastle University.

The tutorial is primarily aimed at veterinary students and nurses. It features videos of expert veterinary staff demonstrating the correct procedures for handling small animals for clinical examination and medication and its aim is to show that the primary consideration should be for the welfare of the animal.

Disbudding of Kid Goats

The Goat Veterinary Society (GVS) has produced a DVD designed to help veterinary surgeons to disbud goats. Produced in association with the BVA Animal Welfare Foundation the DVD is in memory of the late Mike Teale MRCVS, following a donation from his family.

The DVD discusses the potential problems associated with disbudding kid goats and provides guidance on how to avoid them. It shows the best technique for disbudding from start to finish and discusses anatomical considerations, methods of anaesthesia and analgesia and disbudding, with particular attention drawn to the regulatory aspects as they currently apply in the UK.

Further information on the GVS DVD, including obtaining a copy, at a cost of ВЈ10

Bat Care Guidelines – a Guide to Bat Care for Rehabilitators

The Bat Conservation Trust (BCT) has produced Bat Care Guidelines, in association with the BVA AWF, RSPCA and RCVS Trust, aimed at veterinary professionals, wildlife hospitals and new rehabilitators.

The document is split into basic sections including ‘health and safety’, ‘rescue and collection’ and ‘ailments and treatments’ which aim to provide minimum guidelines for bat care. The new initiative is part of an ongoing partnership focusing on the rehabilitation of wild bats in the UK.

Notes

1. For further information please contact the BVA Press Office on 020 7636 6541 or email mediabva

2. Copies of the Bat Care Guidelines have been sent to all UK veterinary surgeons but vets wishing to obtain a copy should contact Helen Miller at the BCT at hmillerbats

British Veterinary Association

Health care costs are “astronomical” for many elderly people who are cared for by their adult children, “compromising the retirement of baby boomers who were expecting inheritances rather than the shock of depleted savings,” the New York Times reports. More than 15 million adult children nationwide are providing care for their elderly parents, including paying part or all of their housing, medical supplies and incidental expenses, surveys show. According to the Times, adult children with the highest expenses are those supervising care long distance, those who hire in-home help and those whose parents have too many assets to qualify for Medicaid “but not enough to pay for what could be a decade of frailty and dependence.” An AARP survey released last month found that most U.S. residents are unaware of the costs of providing long-term care and believe costs will be covered under Medicare. However, “Medicare is of almost no help, since it covers only acute episodes like a heart attack, cancer or repair of a broken hip,” rather than the long-term, low-tech care most elderly people need, the Times reports. A survey conducted in 2004 by the National Alliance for Caregiving found that half of adult children in the U.S. contribute to their parents’ care. The average monthly expenditure by adult children was $200, according to the survey. Respondents who reported caring for their parents for at least 40 hours per week spent an average of $324 a month. Gail Hunt, president of NAC, said those figures were based on “quick, top-of-the-head estimates.” In addition, many out-of-pocket costs like clothing, home repair and telephone bills “go unnoticed,” according to the Times (Gross, New York Times, 12/30/06).

“Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Active surveillance is a viable option for many men with low-risk disease, but more research is needed to determine the critical points at which active treatment should be recommended. Researchers presented two new studies on active surveillance (or “watchful waiting”) during the 105th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) in San Francisco. A special press conference was held on June 1, 2010.. The press conference was moderated by prostate cancer expert J. Brantley Thrasher, MD, of the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Recent controversy has linked prostate cancer testing with overtreatment. However, not all prostate cancers require active treatment. During active surveillance, a patient is monitored regularly for signs of prostate cancer progression with regular prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests and digital rectal exams. Urologists monitor key factors for evidence of progression, such as PSA velocity (rate of change over time) and PSA doubling time, or disease progression on surveillance biopsy to determine if active treatment is necessary. At present, there is no universal standard for these triggers.

Using data from a prospective phase II study of patients with lower-risk (T1b-T2b, N0M0, Gleason 7 or lower, PSA less than 15 ng/ml) disease, researchers in Canada calculated the proportion and frequency of patients who would have been offered active treatment (based on commonly used triggers) to assess whether this would lead to unacceptably high rates of treatment. Of the original 453 patients following the active surveillance protocol, 305 continue to be monitored. The percentage of patients who might have been treated based on threshold, doubling time and velocity were 42 percent, 50 percent and 84 percent, respectively.

The second study, from researchers in San Francisco, explores the safety and efficacy of active surveillance using a cohort of 477 men (mean age 62 at diagnosis) most of whom had low-risk disease (74 percent). Two-hundred ninety-six men had at least one repeat biopsy, with 125 experiencing grade progression. To date, 153 men have undergone active treatment for their disease. Of the 75 men who underwent radical prostatectomy, 33 percent had a Gleason score less than 6, 68 percent had stage T2 or lower disease and 85 percent had negative surgical margins. 25 percent had extracapular extension and 7 percent had seminal vesicle invasion. There have been no cases of biochemical recurrence in this group.

“Overdetection should not be used synonymously with overtreatment when it comes to prostate cancer,” Dr. Thrasher said. “These two studies alone show just how valuable active surveillance protocols can be when disease is managed well and treatment is recommended appropriately.”

Source
American Urological Association

Like the masterless samurai for whom it is named, the protein Ronin chooses an independent path, maintaining embryonic stem cells in their undifferentiated state and playing essential roles in genesis of embryos and their development, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers who reported on this novel cellular regulator in the current issue of the journal Cell.

Three proteins – Oct4, Sox2 and Nanog – had previously been considered the “master” regulators of embryonic stem cells, but “Ronin could be as important as these three,” said Dr. Thomas Zwaka, assistant professor in the Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine (STaR) Center at BCM. In fact, he said, if the action of Oct4, considered the most important, is reduced in embryonic stem cells, Ronin can compensate for the loss.

Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, meaning they have the potential for becoming all other kinds of cells in the body. They are also capable of self-renewal. Oct4, Sox2 and Nanog were previously thought the major method by which embryonic stem cells remained in their pristine state. Now, Ronin represents a different and parallel pathway to achieve the same result.

Ronin is also expressed in early embryonic development of mice. If it is not present, the embryos die, said Zwaka. It is also found in mature oocytes or egg cells.

“Ronin is a potent transcription repressor,” he said. In fact, it prevents the action of genes that promote the differentiation of cells into the various tissues and organs of the body.

“It does it more effectively than the other three factors together,” he said. It silences the differentiation genes epigenetically through specific chemical mechanisms that modify histones, the chief packaging proteins for DNA.

He and his colleagues found Ronin as a follow-up to an earlier study that showed a component of the cell death system called caspase-3 actually cleaved and reduced the amount of Nanog protein. This caused the embryonic stem cells to stop self-renewal and begin differentiation into other kinds of cells.

Zwaka and his colleagues searched for other proteins affected by the caspase and found Ronin, which was previously unknown.

The finding prompts other questions. Can Ronin be used to reprogram differentiated cells into those that more closely resemble embryonic stem cells? What is the significance of the portion of Ronin that resembles a “jumping gene” or transponson called P element transposase, usually found in the genomes of fruit flies?

Ronin is also found in areas of the brain such as the hippocampus and the Purkinje cells of the cerebellum.

“What role does it play in the brain?” asked Zwaka.

###

Others who took part in this research include Marion Dejosez, Joshua S. Krumenacker, Laura Jo Zitur, Marco Passeri, Li-Fang Chu and Zhou Songyang, all of BCM and James A. Thomson of the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Funding for this research comes from the Lance Armstrong Foundation, the Gillson Longenbaugh Foundation, the Tilker Medical Research Foundation, the Diana Helis Henry Medical Research Foundation the Huffington Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

The full paper is available at cell/.

Source: Glenna Picton

Baylor College of Medicine

Motorcycle riders across the country are growing older, and the impact of this trend is evident in emergency rooms daily. Doctors are finding that these aging road warriors are more likely to be injured or die as a result of a motorcycle mishap compared to their younger counterparts.

While the typical injured motorcyclist has long been thought of as a young, otherwise healthy victim of sudden injury, a study from the University of Rochester Medical Center suggests otherwise. Between 1996 and 2005, researchers found the average age of motorcyclists involved in crashes increased from approximately 34 to 39 years, and the proportion of injured riders above the age of 40 increased from around 28 percent to close to 50 percent. Of all injured riders included in the study, 50- to 59-year-olds represented the fastest growing group, while 20- to 29-year-olds were the most rapidly declining.

“We made the clinical observation that older patients – people in their 50′s, 60′s and even 70′s – were being injured on motorcycles with increasing frequency,” said Mark Gestring, M.D., director of the trauma program at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “We wanted to see if this observation was true on a national level and we found that it was.”

For riders above the age of 40, injury severity, length of stay in the hospital or intensive care unit, and mortality were higher compared to riders below the age of 40. The risk of dying was one-and-a-half to two times more likely in riders over 40, based on the severity of the original injury. The study also found that older riders are more likely to die from less severe injuries than younger riders, to spend at least 24 hours in the intensive care unit, and to have more pre-existing co-morbidities and complications, such as heart attack and infections, that contribute to longer hospital stays.

“Treating a 60-year-old who has been in a motorcycle accident is very different from treating a 21-year-old who has been in a similar accident – 60-year-olds bring a lot more medical baggage with them, and this can adversely impact outcomes following injury,” said Gestring. “As people start to dust off their motorcycles this spring, older riders should take an extra measure of caution; if an accident happens they’ll often pay a higher price than younger riders.”

The increase in injury severity for older riders may be related to the reduced capacity to withstand injury as the body ages. Age-related changes, such as decreases in bone strength and brain size, may make older riders more susceptible to injury. Other factors associated with aging, such as impaired vision, delayed reaction time, and altered balance contribute to motorcycle crashes in this population, explaining in part the researchers’ finding that older riders crashed more often as a result of loss of control than younger riders.

In the study, which was published in the March issue of the American Surgeon, researchers using the National Trauma Databank reviewed the records of 61,689 motorcyclists aged 17 to 89 years involved in a motorcycle crash between 1996 and 2005. The average age of motorcyclists involved in crashes steadily increased over the study period, which is consistent with published statistics from the Motorcycle Industry Council which report that the average age of motorcycle ownership rose from 33 years in 1998 to 40 years in 2003.

Injury patterns remained stable over the study period, with extremity fractures, such as broken arms and legs, being the most common injuries, occurring in approximately 25 to 40 percent of motorcyclists studied. The majority of severe injuries were chest and head injuries, and researchers found significantly higher proportions of older riders sustained these types of injuries compared to younger riders.

The younger and older riders did have two things in common: helmet use and alcohol use. Overall helmet use was around 73 percent for both groups, and alcohol use was seen in approximately one third of injured motorcyclists, with no significant difference between the older and younger riders.

Alcohol use and helmet use have been linked in prior reports, with intoxicated drivers less likely to be wearing a helmet and therefore at greater risk for injury and death. It is not surprising that the researchers at the University of Rochester found that riders who tested positive for alcohol use were two-and-a-half times more likely to not be wearing a helmet at the time of injury. Despite abundant evidence that helmets reduce mortality, brain injury, length of hospital stay and economic burden, only 20 states have universal helmet laws.

Motorcycle crashes are a significant cause of injury and death on our nation’s roadways, despite the fact that motorcycles are responsible for only a small fraction of the total miles traveled annually in the United States. The authors say that the study provides justification for expanding the scope of motorcycle safety research, education and training initiatives to specifically target the older motorcyclist.

“At the University of Rochester, we are looking at the development of prevention programs targeting motorcycle safety for older individuals, possibly in partnership with local motorcycle clubs and other interested groups,” said Gestring.

In addition to Gestring, Joshua B. Brown, Paul E. Bankey, M.D., Ph.D., John T. Gorczyca, M.D., Julius D. Cheng, M.D., and Nicole A. Stassen, M.D., from the departments of Surgery and Orthopaedics and the Strong Regional Trauma Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center also contributed to the study.

Source:
Emily Butler

University of Rochester Medical Center

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a gene and a novel signaling pathway, both critical for making the first hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in developing vertebrate embryos. The discovery has implications for developing stem cell-based therapies for diseases like leukemia and congenital blood disorders.

HSCs are multipotent stem cells that give rise to all blood cell types, including red blood and immune cells. Existing medical treatments using HSCs are hampered by cell shortages and finding compatible matches between donors and recipients. Currently, it is not possible to create HSCs from converted embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells – pluripotent cells artificially derived from non-pluripotent cells, such as skin cells.

“What we need is the ability to generate self-renewing HSCs from patients for treatments,” said David Traver, PhD, an associate professor in UCSD’s Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. “But accomplishing this goal means first understanding the mechanisms involved in creating HSCs during embryonic development.”

One of those mechanisms is described for the first time in a paper published by Traver and colleagues in the June 9 issue of the journal Nature.

The researchers focused on a family of 19 known genes called Wnts, which had previously been recognized as important players in other aspects of embryogenesis. “Wnt signaling is involved in virtually all aspects of development,” said Traver. The scientists eventually narrowed their efforts to a single, largely unstudied gene called Wnt16, which they found residing close to HSC precursors in the somites of vertebrate embryos. A somite is an early body segment in the developing embryo that gives rise to most of the adult body muscle and skeleton.

They determined that Wnt16 controls a novel genetic regulatory network necessary for HSC specification. The gene turns on key binding molecules, or ligands, that are required to definitively establish blood cell production. Knocking out Wnt16 in zebrafish, a powerful model of vertebrate development, resulted in embryos lacking HSCs.

Identifying Wnt16 as a vital factor in HSC production dramatically expands what’s known about how HSCs are formed and provides new insight into what tissues talk to each other to achieve the end-goal of producing the adult blood system. “We’re on the cusp of understanding something that people have been wondering about for decades,” said Wilson K. Clements, first author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow in Traver’s lab.

Notes:

Other authors of the paper are Albert D. Kim and Karen G. Ong, UCSD Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Section of Cell and Developmental Biology; John C. Moore and Nathan Lawson, University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Funding for this research came, in part, from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association.

Source:
Scott LaFee

University of California – San Diego

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that a compound in dark chocolate may protect the brain after a stroke by increasing cellular signals already known to shield nerve cells from damage.

Ninety minutes after feeding mice a single modest dose of epicatechin, a compound found naturally in dark chocolate, the scientists induced an ischemic stroke by essentially cutting off blood supply to the animals’ brains. They found that the animals that had preventively ingested the epicatechin suffered significantly less brain damage than the ones that had not been given the compound.

While most treatments against stroke in humans have to be given within a two- to three-hour time window to be effective, epicatechin appeared to limit further neuronal damage when given to mice 3.5 hours after a stroke. Given six hours after a stroke, however, the compound offered no protection to brain cells.

Sylvain DorГ©, Ph.D., associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine and pharmacology and molecular sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, says his study suggests that epicatechin stimulates two previously well-established pathways known to shield nerve cells in the brain from damage. When the stroke hits, the brain is ready to protect itself because these pathways Nrf2 and heme oxygenase 1 are activated. In mice that selectively lacked activity in those pathways, the study found, epicatechin had no significant protective effect and their brain cells died after a stroke.

The study now appears online in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.

Eventually, DorГ© says, he hopes his research into these pathways could lead to insights into limiting acute stroke damage and possibly protecting against chronic neurological degenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related cognitive disorders.

The amount of dark chocolate people would need to consume to benefit from its protective effects remains unclear, since DorГ© has not studied it in clinical trials. People shouldn’t take this research as a free pass to go out and consume large amounts of chocolate, which is high in calories and fat. In fact, people should be reminded to eat a healthy diet with a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Scientists have been intrigued by the potential health benefits of epicatechin by studying the Kuna Indians, a remote population living on islands off the coast of Panama. The islands’ residents had a low incidence of cardiovascular disease. Scientists who studied them found nothing striking in the genes and realized that when they moved away from Kuna, they were no longer protected from heart problems. Researchers soon discovered the reason was likely environmental: The residents of Kuna regularly drank a very bitter cocoa drink, with a consistency like molasses, instead of coffee or soda. The drink was high in the compound epicatechin, which is a flavanol, a flavanoid-related compound.

But DorГ© says his research suggests the amount needed could end up being quite small because the suspected beneficial mechanism is indirect. “Epicatechin itself may not be shielding brain cells from free radical damage directly, but instead, epicatechin, and its metabolites, may be prompting the cells to defend themselves,” he suggests.

The epicatechin is needed to jump-start the protective pathway that is already present within the cells. “Even a small amount may be sufficient,” DorГ© says.

Not all dark chocolates are created equally, he cautions. Some have more bioactive epicatechin than others.

“The epicatechin found in dark chocolate is extremely sensitive to changes in heat and light” he says. “In the process of making chocolate, you have to make sure you don’t destroy it. Only few chocolates have the active ingredient. The fact that it says ‘dark chocolate’ is not sufficient.”

The new study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart and Stroke Association.

Other Johns Hopkins researchers on the study include Zahoor A. Shah, Ph.D.; Rung-chi Li, Ph.D.; Abdullah S. Ahmad, Ph.D.; Thomas W. Kensler, Ph.D.; and Shyam Biswal, Ph.D.

Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine

University of Minnesota stem cell researchers, together with collaborators at Stanford University, have successfully used adult stem cells to replace the immune system and bone marrow of mice, offering the promise of new therapies for people in the future. With this advance and other recent discoveries, the researchers are winning over previous skeptics.

For decades, researchers have tried in the lab to expand hematopoietic stem cells (cells that give rise to the blood system). Success in this venture would mean increasing the supply of cells available for bone marrow transplant patients. The researchers used multipotent adult progenitor cells (MAPCs), which can be isolated from bone marrow and have the ability in the laboratory to differentiate into different specific types of cells such as liver, bone and neural cells.

Catherine Verfaillie, M.D., director of the University’s Stem Cell Institute, first identified MAPCs in 2001. Since then, many in the scientific community have been skeptical of their existence and their functioning as Verfaillie has described. This skepticism mostly arose due to difficulty in reliably growing these cells, which made reproduction in other labs problematic. Since their identification, the methods to isolate and grow MAPCs have been improved (see publication in Experimental Hematology, October 2006). This latest research will be available online from the Journal of Experimental Medicine on January 15; it will appear in the Jan. 22, 2007; print edition of the journal.

Verfaillie and her team isolated MAPCs from mice and expanded them for at least 80 doublings in the lab. They then transplanted the cells into mice that received radiation and thus had no immune system.

“The cells not only survived when transplanted but they completely repopulated the blood system of the mice,” Verfaillie said. The MAPCs did not differentiate into other cell types, such as liver or brain cells, nor did they form tumors in any animals.

Irving Weissman, M.D., Stanford University professor of pathology and developmental biology and co-author on the manuscript, was admittedly skeptical at first about the ability of MAPCs to contribute to blood formation. This skepticism made him an ideal collaborator, as he insisted on rigorous evaluation of the data. “These experiments point to potential precursors of blood forming stem cells in an unexpected population of cultured cells,” said Weissman, who directs Stanford’s Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.

“Scientists must now understand that mouse MAPCs can make normal blood, and we need to explore how they do it,” Weissman said. “It is very important to note that MAPCs were not themselves radioprotective, thus they alone could not be used in patients in whom the bone marrow is totally eliminated due to radiation or chemotherapy, but it is still remarkable that they can give rise to blood cells.”

Bruce Blazar, M.D., professor of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota, who is co-author of the paper, has continued with experiments conducted in his laboratory after the completion of this study. “Our results independently confirmed in an additional series of animals the finding that MAPCs can make blood cells,” Blazar said. While more research will need to be done and studies need to be replicated with human MAPCs before human treatments are available, this research suggests that MAPCs could be used to help reduce rejection of tissue transplants. In the future, physicians may be able to introduce MAPCs in the blood system of the recipient to trick the immune system into accepting the MAPC-generated transplanted tissue. In addition to this paper, in the last few months further evidence of MAPCs existence and function was published in scientific peer-reviewed journals based on research done at the University and other research institutions across the world. “I am pleased to see this science replicated at other research universities,” Verfaillie said. “Now there is further confirmation that the MAPCs could be a valid source of new therapies.” Verfaillie added this research shows the importance of continuing to pursue all types of stem cell research, adult and embryonic, because scientists do not yet know which cell type will prove most promising for treating a particular disease.

MAPCs found in pigs

Verfaillie and colleagues had previously isolated MAPCs from bone marrow of humans, mice and rats. But in order to study potential treatments for people, the research needs to be tested in animal models that are more physiologically similar to humans. In the November 2006 issue of the journal Stem Cells, Verfaillie described how MAPCs can be isolated from pig bone marrow. Pigs are routinely used as a model for humans, especially in cardiovascular research. The researchers were able to isolate and grow the pig MAPCs with some modifications much like they identify human, mouse and rat MAPCs. After isolating the MAPCs, the scientists were able to differentiate the cells into different types of cells that give rise to bone, smooth muscle, fat, cartilage, endothelium (cells that line blood vessels), and cells that are similar to liver and brain cells.

MAPCs and endothelial cells

A team of researchers from the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, and the University of Minnesota published in the journal Blood (November 2006) on the ability of MAPCs to differentiate into two types of endothelial cells, which line the inner walls of blood vessels. By adding various growth factors, the researchers, led by Felipe Prosper, M.D., of Spain, were able to make the human MAPCs differentiate into both arterial endothelial and venous endothelial cells in both a laboratory environment and in mice. Like the studies showing that MAPCs can make blood when transplanted, this is a second example demonstrating that MAPCs can contribute to a tissue when grafted in vivo. “This work provides the first evidence that human MAPCs can be induced to differentiate into the different types of cells needed to form arteries,” Prosper said. “This may suggest future clinical applications for MAPCs in diseases and conditions such as stroke and heart attack.” In addition, this discovery provides researchers a model to study how human arteries and veins develop.

MAPCs create smooth muscle

Verfaillie and colleagues published in the December 2006 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation that MAPCs can generate smooth muscle cells in the laboratory. Smooth muscle cells contract, often without conscious control, regulating body functions such as blood pressure and movement of food through the digestive system.

“While previous research has demonstrated that various types of stem cells can turn into cells that express the proteins consistent with smooth muscle, this is the first study that shows that the cells we generated have the same functional properties as smooth muscle, as well as express the same proteins,” said Jeffrey Ross, Ph.D., research associate at the Stem Cell Institute. These observations suggests that in the future, researchers may be able to make functional tissue in the lab from MAPCs, such as engineering a new blood vessel for use in bypass surgery. As smooth muscle cells are involved in many diseases like hypertension or asthma, the ability to generate smooth muscle cells with all functional attributes of this cell type also opens the possibility that they can be used to screen new drugs in the lab to determine how the cells react to potential new therapies.

###

Contact: Sara E. Buss

University of Minnesota

Phoenix Controls, a Honeywell International business, today announced the introduction of the Advanced Pressure Monitor II (APM2), a device that monitors very low differential pressure between rooms. The APM2 verifies directional airflow, and is used in critical ventilation applications such as vivarium research, chemotherapy preparations, hospital procedure rooms, and biocontainment facilities. The product is available today.

Conceived with input from a wide range of users, the APM2 is designed to meet the broad needs of laboratory, life sciences and healthcare markets. For the architect, the device has a faceplate and touch-screen that is attractive for use in the public spaces of modern facilities. For the design engineer, the product performs functions that can meet the specifications of virtually any room application. For the contractor and installer, the unit is designed for easy rough-in, simple installation and rapid commissioning. And for the end-user, the APM2 should provide years of continuous and reliable operation.

“Pressure monitoring is a core part of our business because it verifies that our valves are properly pressurizing the space,” said Vincent Schultz, general manager of Phoenix Controls. “The APM2 is also an exciting visual product in the finished space, and this helps put Phoenix Controls in front of new customers and brings us into new markets.”

The APM2 blends two key functions together in a single unit; room pressure monitoring and a bright touch-screen local display. The product is a highly accurate pressure monitor, using true differential pressure transducer technology. This means the APM2 can meet the most stringent applications that require measurement of room pressure to 0.0001″ WC resolution, and with an accuracy of В±0.25% of full scale.

Source
Phoenix Controls