Cardiac Surgeons at Bangkok Heart Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand are delivering VesCell angiogenic cell precursors directly into a patient’s heart via thoracoscopic injection.
Click here to view a slide show of the entire VesCell therapy process.
Jeannine Lewis, her husband Tom and their son, celebrate this Thanksgiving Day at Tom's mother's house.
Hannah Kishbaugh notices a hugh difference in her daughter-in-law since Jeannine had her stem cell treatment. "When I went to the doctor with her and come to find out she did have a heart problem, which I didn't know about, and I thought, and I felt bad when I thought she was lazy."
Jeannine's own adult stem cells repaired her heart. But, she like many others, currently have to travel to Thailand to get the treatment.
Researchers found the body has it's own remarkable repair kit. The adult stem cells found in the brain, bone, muscle, skin and blood. They help the body heal from injury.
"I no longer have congestive heart failure. I also improved from a heart failure class 3 to a heart failure class 1, and my heart has gotten noticeably smaller. It's pretty amazing," she says.
Jeannine's life has changed in many ways. Currently people have to travel to Thailand, to get the heart stem cell treatment. Jeannine now works for Vescell, the company that developed the treatment. Now she can help other heart patients get their questions answered. Currently it's not covered by insurance.
Her husband Tom really sees the difference.
"She seems much happier, and that was a big issue with me because I was always frustrated myself seeing her down, depressed. Now she's back, with what I liked when we first met. We just have fun together," he says.
As we speak, more studies are underway to find out how the adult stem cells work with the body to make repairs.
The following is a short interview with John Beshai, MD, who is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in Cardiac Electrophysiology at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.
One of Dr. Beshai’s patients recently received VesCell therapy in Bangkok, Thailand. Dr. Beshai, who accompanied this patient during his trip, was kind enough to answer a few questions about VesCell via email:
INTERVIEW:
How long have you been aware of stem cell therapy for the treatment of heart disease?
"There has been ongoing extensive work in this field for quite some time. "
Why did you encourage your patient to come to Bangkok for treatment?
"My patient had done extensive background search on therapeutic options for heart failure. He had wanted to pursue this opportunity and given the limited options for his management he did not have any alternative. "
Will you encourage more no-option patients to go to Bangkok for VesCell therapy?
"I would be very happy to discuss the option of VesCell therapy with patients who have been optimized medically and who already have ICD/CRT therapy that are without options. "
Do you believe that VesCell peripheral blood stem cells are as effective as stem cells derived from bone marrow in treating ischemic heart disease and non-ischemic cardiomyopathy?
"Cannot comment as there is not enough data in my opinion."
"In your opinion, how did the quality of Bangkok Heart Hospital compare to hospitals you are familiar with in the United States? "
"State of the art facilities with incredibly competent staff. "
Would you recommend stem cell therapy only to “no-option” heart disease patients or do you believe it can help heart patients before that point?
"Hard to comment without solid data."
What would you say to another cardiologist who may be skeptical about this therapy and may have a patient who is asking his or opinion regarding it?
"There are many options for patients that are maximized on medical therapy and have received CRT with ICD who are still having symptomatic heart failure. This is certainly a viable option with favorable outcomes."
Would you be willing to talk to other cardiologists who may have questions about VesCell and how it is being used by hospitals in Thailand?
What other ethical issues might this Korean embyronic stem cell research team be turning a blind eye to?
Hwang’s Stem Cell Team Paid for Eggs
By Kim Tae-gyuStaff Reporter
One of main members of Korean stem cell teams led by professor Hwang Woo-suk at Seoul National University Monday confessed he paid fees for collecting eggs to extract cloned human stem cell lines.
Roh Sung-il, head of infertility clinic Mizmedi Women’s Hospital in Seoul, said he paid roughly 1.5 million won ($1,400) per donor to get double-figure eggs and provided them to Hwang. However, he refused to comment on the most controversial issue whether or not junior researchers at Hwang’s lab donated their eggs.
``Back a couple of years ago, it was really hard to obtain eggs and I provided about 1.5 million won to more than 20 women for their eggs, which went to Hwang’s team,’’ Roh said. He added the fee is just compensation for their inconvenience of being hospitalized and getting shots of hormone injection and the opportunity cost of having to rest due to the painstaking 15-day operations.
``I thought about 100,000 won would be a proper daily fee. But I made the decision on my own without the knowledge of Hwang. He would get to know things only after announcing cloned human stem cells in early 2004,’’ Roh said.
Currently, commercial trading of eggs is strictly prohibited under the bioethics law, which went into effect earlier this year. But up until last year such deals were not unlawful due to the lack of regulations.
Hwang stole the global show in Feb. 2004 when the U.S. journal Science featured his team cloning human embryos and harvesting a stem cell batch from it for the first time in history. The exploit is anticipated to open the door to therapeutic cloning, or a cell therapy that can cure many degenerative diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.
For the groundbreaking experiment, Hwang used 242 eggs from 16 women and Roh was responsible for providing most of them, mainly through paid procurement.
Yet, he flatly denied whirling rumors that Hwang’s team converted eggs obtained for artificial insemination to the research or that they failed to explain the risks of egg procurement to donors.
In particular, he refused to comment on the hot-button issue, the suspicion that two of Hwang’s underlings provided eggs. If true, it would hurt the integrity of overall stem cell research in Seoul.
``I am a doctor. So I cannot say anything about the donors. If I do so, I will risk criminal charges. But I can confirm Hwang himself brought some donors who were willing to give eggs without getting any costs,’’ he said.
Despite the disputes, Korean people seem to continue to back Hwang’s side as women from all walks of life yesterday set up a private foundation to donate eggs for research.
``We plan to encourage women willing to donate eggs at a time when researchers suffer from a lack of eggs due to legal problems,'' said a participant in the foundation.
Interim clinical data evaluating TheraVitae's adult stem cell therapy VesCell suggests significant improvement in patients suffering from severe angina pectoris six months after they received the treatment.
18 Nov 2005, 16:27 GMT - VesCell uses adult stem cells derived from a patient's own blood rather than his or her bone marrow.
According to the data, 93% of patients given VesCell treatment reported an increased ability to perform physical exercise, 62% showed improvement in treadmill exercise capacity, and 73% of patients showed an improvement in perfusion defect of the ischemic region.
The study, evaluating the safety and efficacy of intracoronary administration of VesCell to patients suffering from severe angina pectoris, is being conducted in conjunction with Her Majesty's Cardiac Center at Siriraj Medical Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand.
VesCell technology facilitates the isolation, expansion and differentiation of angiogenic cell precursors to an amount sufficient to induce blood vessel formation in the heart. Cells are isolated from the blood, processed outside the body and then administered to the patient during standard catheterization to regions of the heart suffering from reduced blood supply.
"The results are a major step toward proving the safety and efficacy of VesCell therapy, and demonstrating the reliability of TheraVitae's cell manufacturing process. Moreover, they illustrate the considerable benefits and low risk that VesCell therapy provides to patients," said Dr Alex Battler, director of cardiology at the Rabin Medical Center in Israel and TheraVitae's chief medical officer.
Stem Cell Surgery for Heart Failure Presented at International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation Fall Meeting
Top cardiac surgeons discussed treating heart failure patients with adult stem cells via endoscopic injection at the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation Fall Education Meeting in Dallas.
Dallas, Texas, (PRWEB) November 17, 2005 – Two leading cardiac surgeons in adult stem cell therapy for heart disease presented the use of adult stem cells via endoscopic injection to treat heart failure patients during their talks at the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation Fall Education Meeting: “Synergy: Mechanical and Biological Cardiac Support - Recovery, Replacement, and Repair with Cellular Therapy.”
At the afternoon session on clinical cell therapies, Dr. Amit N. Patel, Director of Cardiac Stem Cell Therapies at The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), described the endoscopic injection procedure that is used to inject stem cells directly into the heart muscle. Dr. Kitipan V. Arom, Chief Cardiac Surgeon at Bangkok Heart Hospital, collaborated with Dr. Patel on the minimally invasive technique.
Dr. Arom followed up by presenting encouraging clinical results from a number of patients treated at Bangkok Heart Hospital using this procedure and VesCell™ from TheraVitae®. VesCell is comprised of adult stem cells called Angiogenic Cell Precursors and is harvested from a small amount of the patient’s own blood.
Dr. Patel recently received approval from the US FDA to initiate clinical trials using adult stem cells derived from bone marrow to treat heart patients at UPMC. However, in Thailand, he has observed several of the procedures performed by Dr. Arom using VesCell. Dr. Patel believes that VesCell is as safe as cells taken directly from the patient’s bone marrow – and safer than cells derived from muscle tissue.
“The results are very promising and we don’t see the complications that we see with other cell types,” said Dr. Patel.
“VesCell is also much easier to harvest because it only requires drawing a small amount of blood from the patient. It does not require a surgical procedure like bone marrow or muscle tissue,” added Dr. Arom.
In the morning sessions on pre-clinical cell therapies, Ren-Ke Li, M.D., Professor of Surgery in the Department of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Toronto, discussed positive initial results from a myocardial ischemia model in rats performed with cells from TheraVitae.
About VesCell™
VesCell™ uses a patient’s own adult stem cells to treat Heart Disease and is a viable alternative for patients who either cannot undergo or choose not to undergo standard treatments such as Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG).VesCell™ uses adult stem cells harvested from approximately ½ pint of the patients own blood to treat several heart conditions. Once harvested, the cells are differentiated and expanded in vitro into Angiogenic Cell Precursors at TheraVitae’s Labs in Israel. They are ready for implantation in about one week.
We are very proud to be featured in the Time Global Advisor. The article appears in the November 21, 2005 issues of Time Europe and Time Asia. We would like readers to note that Dr. Amir Patel's participation was limited to a role supervising and passing on techniques to the Thai cardiologists who carried out he procedure on Mr Grinstead.
Take Heart
A Bangkok company is using stem-cell therapy to give hope to heart patients deemed incurable
By Ilya Garger, Bangkok
When Bob Grinstead landed in Bangkok in March with his wife and daughter, he might have been mistaken for a typical tourist. But the 70-year-old retired computer salesman from Atlanta wasn't in any shape for sightseeing. Since suffering a massive heart attack in 1990, he'd undergone two bypass surgeries and two dozen angioplasties. By last year, any physical effort brought on chest pains—even taking a shower left him exhausted. After his doctors told him there was nothing more they could do, Grinstead turned to the Internet for ideas. Countless searches and phone calls later, he was on a plane to Thailand in a quest for the Holy Grail of 21st century medicine: stem-cell therapy. Today, eight months after having stem cells injected into one of his coronary arteries, Grinstead's heart is operating more efficiently and he's leading a life his U.S. doctors thought impossible. "I can go for a 30-minute walk," he says. "I've taken trips to Antigua and Florida. I feel like living life again."
Grinstead owes his turnaround to TheraVitae, a 2-year-old American- and Israeli-run company that, in conjunction with local hospitals, offers treatment for heart disease with stem cells taken from the patient's own blood. (Bangkok was chosen as the firm's base because of its good medical facilities and relatively permissive policies governing medical procedures.) Using these cells carries several advantages. In contrast to stem cells taken from a human embryo, they're ethically uncontroversial. And because they're derived from blood, they appear better suited to forming heart and artery tissue. What's more, there's no risk of rejection by the immune system, according to University of Pittsburgh cardiologist Amit Patel, who has collaborated with TheraVitae to treat patients.
The process is surprisingly simple. After arriving in Bangkok, the patient has about 250 cc of blood drawn—less than a standard blood donation. This is sent to the company's laboratory in Israel, where stem cells that occur naturally in the blood are isolated and multiplied through a patented process. A week later, a batch of several million stem cells is returned to Bangkok. These are inserted by surgeons into the patient's arteries or heart, using procedures that Patel helped to develop in the U.S. Patel says that when the cells are released into coronary arteries using an angioplasty catheter, they appear to form new vessels and improve blood flow; when injected directly into the heart with a syringe, they seem to grow into new tissue and improve pumping efficiency. He believes the lab-grown stem cells used by TheraVitae are as safe as ones taken directly from the patient's bone marrow—the most common source of stem cells for this kind of therapy—and safer than cells derived from bone or muscle tissue. "The results are promising and we don't see the complications that we see with other cell types," he says. Piero Anversa, a heart expert at New York Medical College who pioneered a similar procedure in mice, agrees that placing blood-derived stem cells in the heart and arteries poses "no danger for the patients," although he says that the therapy still hasn't been proven effective.
In clinical trials reported in U.S. medical journals, Patel's procedures have improved the heart's pumping ability by 20-70%. But that doesn't mean you should book a ticket to Bangkok the minute you start feeling chest pains. As the therapy is still experimental, only those classified by doctors as "no option"—meaning that conventional solutions such as angioplasty and bypass surgery have been exhausted—are eligible. "These patients are really sick," says TheraVitae spokesman Jay Lenner Jr. "We can give people a second chance." Those interested in the treatment, which costs about $30,000 (including most expenses in Bangkok) and requires a 12-day stay, can find out more at vescell.com. For some, it could be the trip of a lifetime.
Results of a 204 patient study presented at the annual American Heart Association meeting in Dallas show that infusing adult stem cells into the heart is effective. Chaophya hospital in Thailand is perfoming a similar treatment (off-trial) for all qualified, no-option, coronary artery disease patients. However, they are using a superior stem cell harvesting technique developed by TheraVitae that uses only a small amount of the patient's own blood and does not require a bone marrow extraction. See:VesCell - Stem Cell Therapy For Heart Disease
PRESS RELEASE: Sunday, November 13, 2005
DALLAS, Texas (Reuters) -- Heart attack survivors whose hearts were infused with stem cells from their own bone marrow showed nearly twice the improvement in the organ's pumping ability as patients given a placebo, according to a study presented Sunday.
From Vescell: It looks like more instituions in the United States are waking up to what we've known for quite some time now. Hopefully, (for their patients' sakes) they will figure out that they don't need to do bone marrow extractions in order to harvest the stem cells.
CLEVELAND, Nov. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Researchers at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals of Cleveland announced today that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved plans to begin a study to evaluate the safety of using adult stem cells from bone marrow to treat chronic ischemia, a serious form of heart disease.
The FDA has approved a Phase I study designed to test the safety of the procedure. It will involve injecting bone marrow stem cells at varying doses into the coronary arteries of patients suffering chronic ischemic coronary artery disease, a condition in which one or more of the primary arteries supplying blood flow to the heart are clogged. The study will include patients who are not candidates for angioplasty, stent placement or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG)....
From VesCell: Hat's off to the World Stem Cell Hub's Director of Registration for acting responsibly by attemping to quell the unfounded furvor surrounding the organization's web site launch this month.
Patients must be patient
The World Stem Cell Hub has opened at Seoul National University Hospital, and patients suffering from illnesses began enrolling to offer their stem cells for research on November 1. As the first step in the search for a cure for terminal illnesses, the hub is garnering not only domestic but also international attention. After only two days of registration, more than 10,000 patients had enrolled, reflecting the national interest and expectation. As the director of registration and one of the medical staff at the World Stem Cell Hub, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the national support and anticipation. At the same time, I take a strong sense of responsibility and duty to heart.
However, I would like to briefly explain the research process because the prospective patients need to have a proper understanding of the process of research and treatment instead of having a vague anticipation about stem cell research. At present, we do not yet have an breakthrough remedy for incurable diseases completely different from existing methods. The patient registration is not a part of the treatment process but only the first step for clinical research. In other words, we have not developed a universal treatment method like a panacea as some prospective patients might think. Instead, we are at a research stage, taking a different direction and using stem cells as we seek remedies for terminal illnesses. In the research for new medicine, only one out of 100 newly-developed medicines can be given to patients after animal and clinical testing, and the research process takes five to 10 years. Similarly, stem cell research has to go through a very complicated and long process. What is more important is that we need a process to verify stability and long-term effectiveness through objective and thorough long-term tracking.
I would like to give a brief introduction to stem cell research. First of all, we will review the applications submitted to the World Stem Cell Hub and select patients suitable for research through the Medical Research Ethics Committee. The patients will be interviewed two to five times. However, patient registration and selection do not mean the beginning of treatment. After consulting with specialists, the patients suitable for research and willing to donate their stem cells will sign an agreement for donation. Skin cells will be taken from the stomach of the patients, and stem cells will be cultured. When cures are tested on primates, and their stability is verified, the clinical tests will begin. Before stem cell cures can be applied to patients, the cure has to go through a complicated and long verification process on the safety of using embryonic stem cells on humans, stable specialization into nerve cells, and long-term effectiveness. Until a treatment technology is developed, there wil be a considerably long research process. It is expected that at least five to 10 years will be required before cures can be applied to actual patients.
By offering an alternate direction in the search for treatment and giving hope to patients suffering from incurable illnesses to one day overcome their diseases, stem cell research is more meaningful than the development of a treatment method. However, as stem cell research has barely entered the process of preparing for clinical tests, the patients might get hurt if they believe this research is a new remedy for terminal diseases and expect too much. Moreover, such anticipation could pressure researchers and might delay progress in their research.Stem cell research has just left the starting line in an exhausting and arduous marathon in the search for cures. Just as the patient registration and selection has been, the entire process will be transparent and will abide by principles based on ethics. From now on, the stem cell research staff will never forget the prayers of this country and its citizens and will devote themselves to the research for cures. Instead of putting too much expectation and blindly believing the research is a panacea, we need to patiently await the day when the safe and long-term benefits of stem cell treatment methods are verified.
* The writer is a professor of neurology at the Seoul National University Hospital and a director of registration at the World Stem Cell Hub.
Translation by the JoongAng Daily staff.by Yoon Byung-woo
More evidence that Thailand is the cardiac stem cell capital of the world!
In a historic operation, thoracic surgeons at Bangkok Heart Hospital performed a robot-assisted cardiac stem cell implantation on October 27th, 2005 using Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci Surgical System and VesCell™ adult stem cell therapy for heart disease on an ischemic cardiomyopathy patient from Fayetteville, Arkansas USA.
Dr. Sujit Banyatpiyaphod utilized the da Vinci system for the pericardial incision. Thoracic surgeon, Dr. Kit V. Arom then implanted the stem cells directly into the patient’s heart using the minimally invasive stem cell injection technique pioneered by Dr. Amit Patel, Director of Cardiac Stem Cell Therapies at The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).
Robotically assisted surgery requires only three small holes be made between the ribs. Through these holes, two robotic arms and an endoscope (a tiny camera) gain access to the heart, making surgery possible without opening the chest.
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