Today in Lab History: May 23, 1962- Successful replantation of a human limb
In 1962, a 12-year-old boy’s severed arm was reattached in the world’s first successful replantation of a human limb with microvascular repair of vessels by a team of surgeons led by Ronald Malt and J. McKhann at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/09/today-lab-history
Cell Transplant Cures Epilepsy in Mice
Epilepsy that does not respond to drugs can be halted in adult mice by transplanting a specific type of cell into the brain, UC San Francisco researchers have discovered, raising hope that a similar treatment might work in severe forms of human epilepsy.
UCSF scientists controlled seizures in epileptic mice with a one-time transplantation of medial ganglionic eminence (MGE) cells, which inhibit signaling in overactive nerve circuits, into the hippocampus, a brain region associated with seizures, as well as with learning and memory. Other researchers had previously used different cell types in rodent cell transplantation experiments and failed to stop seizures.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/cell-transplant-cures-epilepsy-mice
Lye Victim Gets New Face
A Vermont woman whose face was disfigured in a lye attack has received a face transplant. Carmen Blandin Tarleton is a 44-year-old registered nurse and mother of two from Thetford, Vermont. On June 10, 2007, Carmen was brutally attacked by her estranged husband, beat and doused with industrial strength lye burning over 80 percent of her body.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/02/lye-victim-gets-new-face
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have devised a way to detect whether cells previously transplanted into a living animal are alive or dead, an innovation they say is likely to speed the development of cell replacement therapies for conditions such as liver failure and type 1 diabetes. As reported in the March issue of Nature Materials, the study used nanoscale pH sensors and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines to tell if liver cells injected into mice survived over time.
“This technology has the potential to turn the human body into less of a black box and tell us if transplanted cells are still alive,” says Mike McMahon, an associate professor of radiology at the Johns Hopkins Univ. School of Medicine who oversaw the study. “That information will be invaluable in fine-tuning therapies.”
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/02/nanotech-can-check-transplanted-cells
Printed Organs May Eliminate Transplant Problems
A specialized 3D printing process, using human stem cells, could pave the way to purpose-built replacement organs for patients, eliminating the need for organ donation, immune suppression and the problem of transplant rejection.
The process, developed at Heriot-Watt Univ., in partnership with Roslin Cellab, takes advantage of the fact that stem cells can now be grown in laboratory conditions from established cell lines, could also speed up and improve the process of drug testing by growing three-dimensional human tissues and structures for pharmaceuticals to be tested on.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/02/printed-organs-may-eliminate-transplant-problems
A soldier who lost all four limbs in an Iraq roadside bombing has two new arms following a double transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Twenty-six-year-old Brendan Marrocco along with the surgeons who treated him will be at the Baltimore hospital today to discuss the new limbs.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/01/soldier-receives-double-arm-transplant
A new class of drugs reduced the risk of patients contracting a serious and often deadly side effect of lifesaving bone marrow transplant treatments, according to a study from researchers at the Univ. of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The study, the first to test this treatment in people, combined the drug vorinostat with standard medications given after transplant, resulting in 21 percent of patients developing graft-vs.-host disease compared to 42 percent of patients who typically develop this condition with standard medications alone.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/12/drug-cuts-deadly-transplant-risk-half
Hearts previously rejected due to donors’ age or other risk factors can now be declared viable for transplantation using pharmacological stress echo, according to research presented at EUROECHO and other Imaging Modalities 2012. The study was presented by Tonino Bombardini from Pisa, Italy.
EUROECHO and other Imaging Modalities 2012 is the annual meeting of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI), a registered branch of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). It takes place 5-8 December in Athens, Greece, at the Megaron Athens International Conference Centre.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/12/stress-echo-ids-previously-rejected-hearts-transplant
As part of the European study TRANSEURO, five patients with Parkinson’s disease will undergo brain cell transplants at Skåne Univ. Hospital in Lund, Sweden, in early 2013. These are the first operations of their kind in Europe for over 10 years.
The TRANSEURO study, which in Sweden is led by Lund Univ., is now taking a critical approach to the viability of cell therapy as a future treatment for Parkinson’s disease. Can we replace cells that die as a result of our most common neurological diseases? What are the therapies of the future for neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s?
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/11/european-brain-cell-transplants-scheduled-2013
Medical and police authorities are launching a major international probe into the illegal trafficking in human organs for transplants, to help clamp down on the crime, researchers say.
Frederike Ambagtsheer, of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, says a three-year probe now aims to map out the trade and the involvement of criminals in the trafficking. “Our goal is not to get hard numbers,” Ambagtsheer told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “What we want to do is research the supply and demand and the involvement of organized crime — who is facilitating these transplants and how?”
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/11/dutch-hospital-leads-international-organ-trafficking-investigation
A novel therapy that uses donated human stool to treat the deadly and contagious C.diff infection is safe and highly effective, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study. Researchers found that 43 of 49 patients recovered swiftly after treatment and had no adverse complications from C.diff three months later. Treatment is performed either through a nasogastric tube or colonscopy on an outpatient or inpatient basis.
Mayur Ramesh, a Henry Ford Infectious Diseases physician and senior author of the study, says the treatment, while appearing unconventional, has striking results. “More than 90 percent of the patients in our study were cured of their C.diff infection,” says Ramesh. “This treatment is a viable option for patients who are not responding to conventional treatment and who want to avoid surgery.”
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/10/stool-transplant-treats-deadly-infection
Face Transplant Patient Can Taste, Smell 7 Months After Surgery
The Univ. of Maryland Medical Center says a Virginia man who received a full-face transplant seven months ago eats primarily by mouth and can taste and smell.
Thirty-seven-year-old Richard Lee Norris of Hillsville, Va. received the transplant in a 36-hour surgery in March. It included the replacement of both jaws, teeth, tongue, skin and underlying nerve and muscle tissue from scalp to neck.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/10/face-transplant-patient-can-taste-smell-7-months-after-surgery
Dimpled Surfaces Improve Transplants
Cell biologists at Empa want to “tune” implants so they can better carry out their tasks in the human body. The surface of the implant is the key to success. Together with the Fraunhofer Institute IFAM, the Empa team developed a method to manufacture implants with the required surface “from a single cast.”
In order to encourage the human body to accept an implant, its surface should be readily inhabitable by (future) neighboring cells. Osteoblasts, i.e. cells that are responsible for bone formation, must be able to attach to an artificial hip joint so that new bone substance forms, thereby firmly anchoring the implant in the bone. Researchers at Empa are working to develop micro-structured implant surfaces that provide the bone cells with the best possible growth conditions.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/10/dimpled-surfaces-improve-transplants
Artificial Corneas Will Lessen Need for Donors
Blindness is often caused by corneal diseases. The established treatment is a corneal transplant, but in many cases this is not possible and donor corneas are often hard to come by. In the future, an artificial cornea could make up for this deficiency and save the vision of those affected.
Our eyes are our window to the world. Thousands of people have lost their eyesight due to damages to the cornea, such as trauma, absent limbal stem cells or diseases. Transplantation of a donor cornea is the therapy of choice for a great number of those patients. Let alone the issue of scarce donor material, a sub-group of patients do not tolerate transplanted corneas, necessitating the employment of an alternative means of restoring eye sight. In Germany alone, around 7,000 patients are waiting to be treated. In close cooperation with the Aachen Centre of Technology Transfer, Joachim Storsberg and his team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer research IAP in Potsdam, are attempting to improve the situation by developing an artificial cornea. Scientific partners in the “ART CORNEA” project include the Martin Luther Univ. of Halle-Wittenberg, ACTO e. V. and the Ophthalmic Clinic Cologne-Merheim.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/10/artificial-corneas-will-lessen-need-donors
Photoreceptor Transplant Restores Mice’s Vision
Scientists from the Univ. College London Institute of Ophthalmology have shown that transplanting light-sensitive photoreceptors into the eyes of visually impaired mice can restore their vision.
The research, published in Nature, suggests that transplanting photoreceptors – light-sensitive nerve cells that line the back of the eye – could form the basis of a new treatment to restore sight in people with degenerative eye diseases. Scientists injected cells from young healthy mice directly into the retinas of adult mice that lacked functional rod-photoreceptors. Loss of photoreceptors is the cause of blindness in many human eye diseases including age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa and diabetes-related blindness.
Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Photoreceptor-Transplant-Restores-Mices-Vision-041912.aspx
