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What
is the difference between your stem cell technology and other currently available stem
cell technologies? |
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The
stem cells are produced from human blood in relatively
large quantities, cost-effectively and the method
avoids current
political and ethical problems.
No
invasive surgical procedure or anaesthetic is required.
The patient can act as his/her own donor (autologous)
reducing the risk of immune rejection. |
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Retrodifferentiation,
sounds funky, what does it mean with respect to pluripotent stem cells? |
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Essentially,
the technology we are proposing has the ability to reprogramme mature adult blood cells to
a more primitive stage (i.e. pluripotent stem cell). This stem cell is then able to
develop along one of several different pathways into a variety of tissue types (e.g.
muscle, cartilage, neurons). |
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Are
you sure what you have isolated is really pluripotent stem cells and how? |
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Yes,
(i) because they have been characterized
using standard in vitro assay methods such as clonal
assay, flow
cytometry,
long-term culture and molecular biological techniques
e.g. PCR, RT-PCR and
Southern blotting; and (ii) functionally evaluated in
established rodent models ( NOD/SCID & Rnu/Rnu) where
they were shown to re-constitute the bone marrow,
spleen, thymus and heart. |
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How
long does it take to generate the pluripotent stem cells? |
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Pluripotent
stem cells are generated within hours of apheresis and
processing the blood samples. |
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Can
the technology be applied to both healthy and leukaemic patients to source stem cells? |
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Yes.
In both cases there is an abundant supply of mononuclear
cells within the blood. |
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What
are the implications and potential of the technology in terms of its therapeutic use? |
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Many
diseases (e.g. Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, heart, diabetes) result from the dysfunction of a
single cell type. With TriStem's technology, the introduction of healthy cells of a
particular type in large quantities into a patient could potentially restore a lost or
compromised function. In addition, the retrodifferentiation process can also help us to
understand better, and possibly treat, cancer and AIDS. |
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Is
this technological process like cloning/genetic engineering? |
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No. It
does not involve the use of human embryos or foetal tissue nor does it involve any genetic
manipulation. |
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How
long will it be before your technology is available to patients? |
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Prior
to a novel technology such as this being made available
it must go through a rigorous regulatory approval
process which involves a series of trials. Assuming
satisfactory
discussions with the appropriate regulators and successful
clinical trials, we would hope that TriStem's technology
can be rolled out for general application from early
2006. |
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Have
you been able to produce neural stem cells?
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Yes.
Images of neural stem cells produced from retrodifferentiation
can be found on our website. These stems cells have
also been confirmed to secrete neurotransmitters
such as dopamine, serotonin and GABA. |
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Has
stem cell therapy been used to treat 'liquid' cancers such as leukaemia? |
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Yes.
Autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplants have been used to treat leukaemia,
lymphoma and myeloma, including some solid tumours such as breast and ovarian cancers. |
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What
is the risk of using a leukaemia patient's own blood cells to create stem cells? |
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There
is no conceivable additional risk to using the patient's own blood cells. Any risk of
immune rejection is nullified because of a perfect tissue match. In certain cases, an
allogeneic stem cell transplant is preferred to deliberately mount an immune response
against host tumour cells. This latter process is facilitated by TriStem's technology
because the technology enables the production of stem cells from healthy blood donors
without the need for invasive surgical procedures or anaesthesia. Consequently, this
technology is donor-friendly, and increases the options available for the transplant
recipient to locate a viable donor in a relatively short period of time. |
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How
can you control conversion from stem cell to a specific mature cell type? |
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Stem
cells are cultured in a rigorously controlled environment that determines the
redifferentiation pathway they follow. Stem cells may become new cell types
('transdifferentiation') or they may mature along their original pathway (re-ontogeny).
The technology also exists to identify the type of cell resulting from the differentiation
of stem cells in the laboratory. |
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