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Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center have demonstrated for the first time that transplanted muscle stem cells can both improve muscle function in animals with a form of muscular dystrophy and replenish the stem cell population for use in the repair of future muscle injuries. "I'm very excited about this," said lead author Amy J. Wagers, Ph.D., Principal Investigator in the Joslin Section on Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, principal faculty member at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Assistant Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University. "This study indicates the presence of renewing muscle stem cells...

Treating lung diseases is a high priority--chronic lung diseases are the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. Now a Canadian team has successfully treated a rare, progressive lung disease, pulmonary hypertension, using the patient's own genetically-modified adult stem cells.   The company Osiris has also started a Phase II clinical trial using its adult stem cell product, Prochymal, for moderate to severe chronic obstructive lung disease. Researchers at Vermont College of Medicine have also shown that cord blood stem cells has the potential to regenerate lung tissue.

Spray Gun Shoots Adult Stem Cells Onto Wound One goal of the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine is a way to quickly seal battlefield wounds and promote more rapid healing. One method already being tested is a skin spray gun; it sprays skin stem cells onto a wound. The technique also utilizes an innovative wound dressing that acts as a bioreactor, nurturing the sprayed-on cells. The method, which uses the patient's own cells, has already been successfully tested on 16 burn patients at the Berlin Burn Center, providing faster and more efficient healing than typical skin grafts. The patient's...

In the ongoing debate about stem cell research, few people differentiate between adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells. Also, few know that there are over 70 successful treatments from adult stem cells and none from embryonic.1What has many up in arms is that the production of embryonic stem cells endangers the life of a very small, but distinctly human, person. Once a human egg has been fertilized, a new cell results, called a zygote. This single cell contains all the instructions required to mature and develop a full-term baby and is therefore rightly considered an immature person. The...

Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center have demonstrated for the first time that transplanted muscle stem cells can both improve muscle function in animals with a form of muscular dystrophy and replenish the stem cell population for use in the repair of future muscle injuries. “I’m very excited about this,” said lead author Amy J. Wagers, Ph.D., Principal Investigator in the Joslin Section on Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, principal faculty member at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Assistant Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University. “This study indicates the presence of renewing muscle stem cells...

UF McKnight Brain Institute director honored by Italian scientists Dennis Steindler, Ph.D., is the executive director of the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida. He recently was honored for his contributions to... Click here for more information. GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Dennis Steindler, executive director of the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida, was honored for his contributions to neuroscience at a ceremony with officials from the Catholic University in Rome, the university's teaching hospital — the Gemelli University Polyclinic — and the Italian government.  Steindler...

Rachel Wright gave her mother nearly an extra three years of life and together they played a pioneering role in the battle against a rare form of cancer called mantle-cell lymphoma. In the fall of 2005, Rachel, an Eisenhower graduate living in Seattle, allowed researchers to harvest her stem cells for transplantation into her mother, longtime Yakima resident Mary Roche Wright. Mary received a new immune system from her daughter that would hopefully fight off the lymphoma cells. The odds that Rachel would even be a donor were only 1 in 10,000. "We often don't even check the daughter because...

In recent years, stem cell researchers have become very adept at manipulating the fate of adult stem cells cultured in the lab. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies achieved the same feat with adult neural stem cells still in place in the brain. They successfully coaxed mouse brain stem cells bound to join the neuronal network to differentiate into support cells instead. The discovery, which is published ahead of print on Nature Neuroscience's website, not only attests to the versatility of neural stem cells but also opens up new directions for the treatment of neurological diseases, such...

There's been a lot of controversy over the use of embryonic stem cells in recent years, but adult stem cells, which few people oppose using, are already giving some patients a new lease on life. Donald Reid is hoping adult stem cells will give him more time. The 57-year-old has clogged arteries and heart disease so bad he's not a candidate for surgery. Instead, he's joined an experimental study. It involves a machine that takes his blood and pulls out stem cells. But these aren't stem cells from an embryo. These are Donald's own adult stem cells. In the coming...

Study: Stem Cells Used To Fix Your Broken Heart It's Called The Marvel Study The Largest Clinical Trial Investigating Adult Stem Cells To Treat Congestive Heart Failure For More Info, Call Jim Moran Heart & Vascular Center At (954) 229-8400 MIAMI (CBS4) ― Doctors are discovering a new way to fix your broken heart. A study is underway in South Florida that could revolutionize the way heart attack patients help their damaged hearts by using their own stem cells. It's called The Marvel Study and under the direction of Dr. Alan Neiderman with the Jim Moran Heart & Vascular Research...

Mumbai: Seven years after its inception amid much fanfare, Reliance Life Sciences, or RLS, is finally rolling out stem cell-based therapies in India, beginning with a treatment that can restore or improve vision. “This is the first commercial stem cell treatment in ophthalmology in the country,” said K.V. Subramaniam, CEO and president, RLS, part of the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance group. The company, which has invested around Rs1,000 crore in the business, has lined up other stem cell therapies for cardiac infarction, diabetic ulcer, and stable vitiligo or leukoderma (a skin disease), among others, to be offered in clinics in the...

A spinal surgeon in Aurora, Colo., recently performed what's being called the first disc surgery in the United States using adult stem cells to help repair a man's injured lower back. "Stem cells have shown great promise over the past three years for treating back pain," Dr. Jeffrey Kleiner said. "In combination with the diskectomy, we hope to offer patients long-term relief from their back pain and to decrease their risk of needing additional surgeries." Adult stem cells have been injected into patients' backs and joints to promote tissue growth, but this is the first time stem cells have been...

Spine surgeons at Pine Creek Medical Center in Dallas have established themselves as the leaders of a cutting-edge surgical procedure that utilizes a patient's own adult stem cells to regenerate tissue.   Doctors Douglas Won, Michael Rimlawi, and Francisco J. Battle, all spine surgeons, have extensive experience in harvesting adult stem cells during routine spinal procedures and delivering those cells back to their patients to aid in the treatment of severe back pain.  According to the World Research Group, disorders of the spine are one of the largest public health problems in the U.S. and as the population ages, incidents of...

Adult Stem Cells to treat ALS: UBC Study Vancouver researchers pioneer safe pathway to slow ALS using stem cells A unique pilot study has established a safe pathway for using bone-marrow stem cells to slow down and potentially treat Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a fatal neurodegenerative disease without cure. The study, published in the journal, Muscle & Nerve and led by Dr. Neil Cashman, professor of neurology at The University of British Columbia and director of the ALS program at Vancouver Coastal Health and VCH Research Institute, tested the use of a growth factor stimulant in ALS patients and found...

The progress in using stem cell therapy may have hit a minor bump, according to a new study. The study indicated that using stem cells to regenerate damaged tissue, a step that can be used in the treatment of diseases, may turn out to be a complicated affair, after all.  Nobel laureate and geneticist from the University of Utah Mario Capecchi conducted the study jointly with Eugenio Sangiorgi, another geneticist. It was conducted on mice and involved the use of a gene called Bm1 to indicate that adult stem cells were present in the intestine of the mice. While that...

Some of Australia's leading bio-scientists are taking a closer look at a new, ethically acceptable stem cell research route that avoids the use of human embryos in the search for possible cures for degenerative diseases.  While not yet convinced that the "exciting" new method is as promising as using embryonic stem cells, they are studying the relative merits of the two approaches.  A major research breakthrough announced in Japan and the U.S. last November revealed that human "adult" skin cells can be reprogrammed into a new kind of cell -- an induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell -- that shares an...

Scientists to issue stem-cell guide Their goal is to keep people desperate for treatment from falling prey to quacks. The world's leading group of stem-cell researchers yesterday announced it would issue guidelines for turning basic stem-cell research into safe, effective therapies. The International Society for Stem Cell Research's recommendations are aimed at halting "stem-cell tourism" - the growing parade of patients traveling to developing countries for costly, unproven and potentially harmful stem-cell treatments. "They're basically selling the 'snake oil' we've seen in medical fraud for many centuries," George Q. Daley, president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR),...

NICE, France: In patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), immunosuppressive therapy followed by autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation elicited high response rates and improved quality of life for up to 6 years. The results of the study were presented here at the 18th Meeting of the European Neurological Society (ENS) by Tatiana Ionova, MD, PhD, Department of Haematology, Pirogov National Medical Surgical Center, Moscow, Russia. During the last decade, high-dose immunosuppressive therapy followed by autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation has been used with increasing frequency as a therapeutic option for patients with MS. "The aim of the study was to assess...

New York is set to spend $600 million in taxpayer dollars on stem cell research. A recently released draft plan drooling over the potential of embryonic cells to cure a variety of diseases has drawn this blast from Rev. Ruben Diaz, the state senate's sole pro-life Democrat: June 13, 2008Judy Doesschate, J.D.Director of Board OperationsWadsworth CenterNew York State Department of HealthEmpire State Plaza, Box 509Albany, NY 12208-0509Dear Ms. Doesschate:This letter is to express my response to the Empire State Stem Cell Board’s strategic framework that will guide New York State’s $600 Million, 11-year investment in stem cell research. The...

Dr. Rodriguez discussed use of stem cells for treating SUI (Stress Urinary Incontinence). A stem cell is embryonic, adult, or engineered. Embryonic stem cells come from the blastocyst which is totipotent or pluripotent. These cells are immortal, identical clonal cells with long-term self renewal. Controversies include possible tumor formation, the difficulty maintaining cell cultures and ethical issues. Embryonic stem cells can differentiate into ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm. Adult stem cells include hematopoetic stem cells, such as derived from bone marrow. This requires a bone marrow harvest, with low yield and difficulty to expand clones. A variety of other tissues have...

Australian scientists have discovered that stem cells found in the back of a patient's nose can produce the chemical which is missing in people with Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's disease occurs when the brain cells that produce the chemical dopamine stop working.  Without dopamine, nerve cells cannot function, leading to muscle problems. Researchers from Griffith University and the University of Queensland harvested adult stem cells from the noses of Parkinson's disease patients.  They found that once the nose cells were cultured and infused into animals with Parkinson's disease, the cells began to produce dopamine.  Professor Peter Silburn from the University of...

New therapies offer promise for patients, say researchers at SNM's 55th Annual Meeting, June 14-18 NEW ORLEANS, La.—Using noninvasive molecular imaging technology, a method has been developed to track the location and activity of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in the tumors of living organisms, according to researchers at SNM's 55th Annual Meeting. This ability could lead to major advances in the use of stem cell therapies to treat cancer.  "Stem cell cancer therapies are still in the early stages of development, but they offer great promise in delivering personalized medicine that will fight disease at the cellular level," said Hui...

iZumi Bio has agreed to license some patents from the J. David Gladstone Institutes as they begin to work together on new adult stem cell technology involved in devising cardiovascular therapies. ReportStem cell transplants were used to restore the sight of six blind patients at a London hospital. StorySome 2,500 delegates attended the recent International Society for Stem Cell Research in Philadelphia. And insiders say that the development of induced pluripotent stem cells has clearly energized the entire field. ReleaseIn a new study regarding age-related diseases, researchers identified two key regulatory pathways that control how well adult stem cells...

Stem cells may force Crohn's disease into retreat, say Long Island medical investigators who are embarking on a pioneering analysis that targets patients who've failed other therapies. Cases of Crohn's disease have skyrocketed since World War II, jumping tenfold in the United States and raising questions about the disease's genetics and demography. It is one of two disorders -- the other is ulcerative colitis -- that are known as inflammatory bowel diseases. Before the 20th century there was no recorded evidence of either. Dr. Robert Richards, director of clinical research in the gastroenterology division at Stony Brook University Medical Center,...

For more than thirty years, Steve Foster has been living his life partially paralyzed, but he hopes a recent trip to Mexico is going to change that. "I want this...bad," said Foster, an adult stem cell patient. Foster traveled south to undergo the adult stem cell transplant procedure, in an effort to gain back what he once had. "I'm tired of this life, and the way it is now," he said. Julie Hood, a human biology assistant professor at Central Oregon Community College, says although the treatment isn't performed in the U.S., it has been performed successfully in other countries....

Adult stem cell research, for the pro-life community, is ethically superior to embryonic stem cell research because it doesn't involve the destruction of human life. Scientists at Griffith University in Australia are advancing the notion that its effectiveness is superior as well. The researchers published an article on Friday in the medical journal Stem Cells showing that the use of adult stem cells may be getting closer to a cure, or at least an effective treatment, for Parkinson's. Their new studies show adult stem cells from a patient's own nose could treat their condition. The paper showed the finding that...

Once an Embryo… June 23rd, 2008 by Fr. Frank Pavone The US bishops have issued a very clear statement on embryonic stem cell research. It does not dwell upon the scientific nuances of the issue, but rather assists the reader to focus on the moral issues involved. The statement is not marked by condemnation, but rather by explanation. It is not a rejection of research or of those who stand to benefit from research, but rather a call to pursue the well being of those very individuals by preserving the moral standards that protect their dignity and that of the...

The Perth scientist who made the world-first discovery that human breast milk contains stem cells is confident that within five years scientists will be harvesting them to research treatment for conditions as far-reaching as spinal injuries, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. But what Dr Mark Cregan is excited about right now is the promise that his discovery could be the start of many more exciting revelations about the potency of breast milk. He believes that it not only meets all the nutritional needs of a growing infant but contains key markers that guide his or her development into adulthood. “We already...

-snip- Q. Will stem cells eventually play a role in relieving ankle or foot pain? A. I was once told that all the metal and plastic inserts we are using in orthopedic surgery would be laughed at in 20 years, similar to the way we look at wooden teeth now. This is because the goal of medicine is to regenerate ourselves. Tissue engineering and work with stem cells are actually giving us that opportunity. In orthopedics, the problem with cartilage, the translucent rubbery material that covers and protects the ends of bone, is that it doesn’t want to regenerate. We...

The June 19, 2008 headline reads “US doctors kill skin cancer with cloned T-cells.” Does this suggest that human cloning of embryonic stem cells has been successful in treating skin cancer? Absolutely not! The details of the New England Journal of Medicine report that generated this news coverage reveal that adult stem cells obtained from the patient were used. As reported in ScienceDaily, researchers “removed CD4+ T cells, a type of white blood cell, from a 52-year-old man whose Stage 4 melanoma had spread to a groin lymph node and to a lung. T cells specific to targeting the melanoma...

BERKELEY – Old muscle got a shot of youthful vigor in a stem cell experiment by bioengineers at the University of California, Berkeley, setting the path for research on new treatments for age-related degenerative conditions such as muscle atrophy or Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Old muscles renewedIrina Conboy and Morgan Carlson have learned how to trigger the rejuvenation of old, damaged muscles. View full-size videoIn a new study published June 15 in an advanced online issue of the journal Nature, researchers identified two key regulatory pathways that control how well adult stem cells repair and replace damaged tissue. They then...

Participants in a Federal Drug Administration (FDA) protocol at TCA Cellular Therapy utilizing stem cells to treat lower limb ischemia are experiencing increased mobility and decreased pain in lower legs. Lower limb ischemia is a condition where plaque build-up causes decreased circulation in the lower leg. Symptoms of the condition include intense pain and swelling. Study participants may have had different factors that contributed to their condition: a family history of Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD), history of smoking and other vascular conditions. Common among them however, were that more traditional treatments (utilizing stents and grafts) were ineffectual and that the...

Stem Cells Could Replace Plastic Surgery Silicone breast implants and botox could one day be things of the past thanks to promising new techniques that would allow doctors to work plastic surgery miracles using only a patient's own stem cells. Traditionally, plastic and reconstructive surgery has relied heavily on fillers. Bags full of saline or silicone are used to plump up breasts. Chunks of fat are taken from one area of the body and grafted into another. These techniques, which like other body enhancement procedures have soared in popularity in recent years, can work successfully but they also have drawbacks....

The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has announced that it is funding a new adult stem-cell treatment that could treat diabetes-induced retinal damage, a leading cause of blindness. Forbes Magazine says that Pfizer is funding the creation of a San Diego biotech company named EyeCyte to develop stem-cell treatments for eye diseases. The company will base its work upon Scripps Research Institute ophthalmologist Martin Friedlander’s research involving stem-cells from blood and bone marrow. EyeCyte will receive about $3 million from Pfizer, which in return has the right of first refusal regarding the new company’s products. In animal experiments, adult stem-cells have shown...

A recent medical breakthrough at UNC may help thousands every year whose broken bones do not heal.  Researchers who transplanted adult mouse stem cells into mice with fractured bones showed that the cells could help heal the fractures. Anna Spagnoli, associate professor of pediatrics and biomedical engineering at UNC and senior author of the study, said it was meant to determine whether adult stem cells could be used to improve the healing tissue at a fractured site and whether the cells went directly to the injury once transplanted.  She said that as a pediatrician, she has worked with children...

Two Canadians have been injected with a genetically modified version of their own adult stem cells in an attempt to cure pulmonary hypertension, a rare, debilitating lung disease. The procedure, which has successfully cured rats with pulmonary hypertension, has halted the progress of the disease in the patients. The first patient, who has had the disease for 13 years, is reporting no ill effects from the treatment and has seen her condition improve. Researchers are hopeful that the treatment eventually will reverse or even cure the disease. "The use of ethical stem cells to treat disease is a positive and...

Breakthrough: Adult Stem Cells & Parkinson’s Great - and, for anyone following the stunning medical advances being made thanks to ADULT Stem Cell Research - unsurprising news on the Parkinson’s front. Just as numerous spinal cord injuries are being successfully treated with ASC taken from nasal cavities, it looks there sufferers of Parkinson’s Disease may be helped, too.Scientists Say Cure for Parkinson's Disease Right under Their Noses SYDNEY, Australia, June 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - New research on stem-cell therapy shows scientists have found that the cure for Parkinson’s disease may lie right under one’s nose - or rather, in it....

After 21 years of unsuccessful heart treatments, including several heart procedures, 68-year-old Coenie de Jongh was desperate. So when his cardiologist suggested a last-resort experimental therapy, it represented a literal life line.  Coenie, from Bloubergstrand near Cape Town, had his first heart attack at the young age of 40. A bypass operation followed and his condition improved, but seven years later Coenie’s health started deteriorating again. More operations and more intense treatment followed, but in 2002 his health took a real turn for the worse.  His condition was so bad he struggled to find a cardiologist who was willing to...

In an approach that could become a new treatment for the 10 to 20 percent of people whose broken bones fail to heal, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have shown that transplantation of adult stem cells can improve healing of fractures. Adult stem cells are specialized cells with the ability to regenerate tissue in response to damage. However, many patients lack sufficient numbers of these cells and thus cannot heal properly. Researchers have used adult stem cells in a few cases to improve fracture healing, but further studies were needed to show that this method...

Stem cells may force Crohn's disease into retreat, say Long Island medical investigators who are embarking on a pioneering analysis that targets patients who've failed other therapies. Cases of Crohn's disease have skyrocketed since World War II, jumping tenfold in the United States and raising questions about the disease's genetics and demography. It is one of two disorders -- the other is ulcerative colitis -- that are known as inflammatory bowel diseases. Before the 20th century there was no recorded evidence of either. Dr. Robert Richards, director of clinical research in the gastroenterology division at Stony Brook University Medical Center,...

MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. — When 9-year-old Kacie Sallee saw her father's face more clearly for the first time in her life, she had a question. "She said, 'Is that what he looks like?'" said her mother, Marinda Sallee. Kacie, who is blind, returned last week from China, where she received umbilical-cord stem cell treatment in hopes of improving her eyesight. The nearly four-week trip and medical treatment was paid through $60,000 in local donations. Kacie was born with septo-optic dysplasia, an underdevelopment of the optic nerve and pituitary gland. She could see bright colors out of her right eye but...

Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics has developed a novel stem cell therapy to treat Parkinson's Disease - using a patient's own bone marrow stem cells to produce the missing chemical that enables restoration of motor movement. The process - which successfully alleviated symptoms of Parkinson's in rats - will be tested on monkeys next year, with human clinical trials scheduled for the following year. About 1.5 million Americans have been diagnosed with Parkinson's, a chronic progressive neurodegenerative disease. Parkinson's affects those brain cells responsible for production of dopamine, the neurotransmitter that directs motor movement. Insufficient dopamine levels result in tremor, rigidity, slowness...

STEM CELL ETHICSBy Judie BrownThe good news out of Australia this week is that stem cells harvested from the noses of Parkinson's patients developed into dopamine-producing brain cells when transplanted into the brain of a lab rat. And while there has been no word about the potential for the human who is suffering from Parkinson's, there should be every reason for optimism. And as this news report makes abundantly clear, "Unlike unethical [human] embryonic stem cells – which have yielded no cures despite the investment of hundreds of millions of research dollars – these stem cells from a patient's nose do...

SYDNEY, Australia, June 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - New research on stem-cell therapy shows scientists have found that the cure for Parkinson's disease may lie right under one's nose - or rather, in it. Researchers from Griffith University have published a study in the journal Stem Cells that has found adult stem-cells harvested from the noses of Parkinson's patients developed into dopamine-producing brain cells upon being transplanted into the brain of a lab rat. Professor Alan Mackay-Sim said researchers simulated Parkinson's symptoms in rats by creating lesions on one side of the rat's brain to imitate the damage Parkinson's disease wreaks...

"Adult stem cells cure and treat more than 70 diseases and are involved in almost 1,300 human clinical trials. Scientists also keep discovering that adult stem cells are capable of creating a wider variety of mature cells. Perhaps the most promising of these was announced in the January issue of Nature Biotechnology." From article, "Code of Silence", under articles heading.

Bone marrow stem cells waver before committing to develop into specialized blood cellsIf two roads diverged in a yellow wood, random fluctuations would influence which road stem cells traveled. A new understanding of how stem cells choose among their possible fates could aid development of stem cell therapies for diseases, scientists say. A type of adult stem cell in bone marrow can develop along one of two paths: either the red or white blood cell lineages. Scientists have wondered why some bone marrow cells follow one path while other, seemingly identical cells go down the other. New research shows that...

FREDERICTON -- The use of stem cell technology to repair tendon and ligament damage in horses could lead to good news some day for humans hobbled by similar problems. Unencumbered by many of the prohibitions governing the use of stem cells in humans, veterinarians in Canada are speeding ahead with the latest developments to treat injured, high performance horses. The Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island is partnering with VetCell Bioscience Ltd. in England to introduce a new equine stem cell therapy to Canada that aims to make lame horses as good as new. Dr. Laurie...

Lord Patel of Dunkeld, chairman of the UK National Stem Cell Network and chancellor of Dundee University, told the Scotsman earlier this week that research involving stem cells would likely lead to therapies, but that ultimately such treatments could prove too risky for human use. He also said it could be five to ten years before viable stem cell treatments were available. But even then, he observed, "We have to be cautious. It may not deliver therapy for anything. We may find that stem therapy is quite a risky business." In terms of the efficacy of stem cell cures, Lord...

The injection of uterine stem cells trigger growth of new brain cells in mice with Parkinson's disease, Yale School of Medicine researchers report. "Previously, we were able to coax these multipotent stem cells to differentiate into cartilage cells," said lead author Hugh S. Taylor, M.D., professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine and section chief of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Yale School of Medicine. "Now we have found that we can turn uterine stem cells into neurons that can boost dopamine levels and partially correct the problem of Parkinson's disease." Parkinson's...

BOSTON (WBZ) ― There's been a lot of controversy over the use of embryonic stem cells in recent years, but adult stem cells, which few people oppose using, are already giving some patients a new lease on life. Donald Reid is hoping adult stem cells will give him more time. "There's not many options left for me." The 57-year-old has clogged arteries and heart disease so bad; he's not a candidate for surgery. Instead, he's joined an experimental study that involves a special machine. It's taking his blood and pulling out stem cells. We're not talking about stem cells from...