( OPC1 secretesspecific neurotrophic fac...)Research Documents Scalable Production, Survival Following,Engraftment and Positive Impact on Cardiac Function in Infarcted,Rats for Geron's Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Based Therapeutic for,Heart Failure,Health

OPC1 secretes specific neurotrophic factors, including midkine, hepatocyte growth factor, activin A, transforming growth factor Beta and brain-derived neurotrophic factor. These factors induce growth of neurons and are likely to contribute to the therapeutic effects of GRNOPC1 after transplantation in the injured spinal cord.

"These studies document some of the multiple mechanisms by which GRNOPC1 may potentiate spinal cord repair," said R. Scott Thies, Ph.D., Geron's director of cell technologies. "Furthermore the results provide specific markers to monitor and control the quality of the production of GRNOPC1, a critical element in the development of therapeutic cell products."

Islet Cells for the Treatment of Diabetes

In another presentation, Geron scientists described procedures to produce islet-like clusters from hESCs, a potential treatment for diabetes. In the work recently published online in Stem Cells Express and in an upcoming issue of Stem Cells, Geron scientists described a multistage protocol to differentiate hESCs into key cell types of the pancreas, including ductal, exocrine and endocrine cells. The endocrine cells appeared as bud-like clusters resembling the islets of Langerhans and included the major islet cell types that produce the hormones insulin, glucagon and somatostatin. Upon exposure to increased concentrations of glucose, the islet-like clusters secreted insulin. When transplanted into diabetic mice, the hESC-derived pancreatic cell population prolonged animal survival and produced human c-peptide in the serum of transplanted animals upon challenge with glucose. Neither prolonged survival nor C-peptide production was observed when the diabetic animals were transplanted with either human foreskin fibroblasts or undifferentiated hESCs. In new updates at the ISSCR Annual Meeting, procedures were described to physically enrich the bud-like clusters to produce cell populations containing as high as 10% insulin positive cell
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