NeoStem announces presentation on very small embryonic-like stem cells at ISSCR 2010

Jun 18 2010

NeoStem, Inc. (NYSE Amex: NBS) ("NeoStem" or the "Company"), an international biopharmaceutical company with operations in the U.S. and China, announced today that a poster authored by NeoStem-affiliated scientists will be presented in a presentation at the premier stem cell research event, the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) 8th Annual Meeting in San Francisco on June 17, 2010.

Robin Smith, M.D., NeoStem's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are excited about this opportunity to present at the ISSCR conference, one of the most preeminent events in the world in stem cell research. We continue our efforts to advance the development and application of very small embryonic-like stem cells to treat regenerative diseases without the risk of serious graft versus host disease or tissue rejection typically associated with allogeneic stem cells. Our leading scientific research effort in the field is the subject of a multi-pronged collaboration with the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Culture to advance adult stem cell research."

ISSCR is an independent, nonprofit organization formed to foster the exchange of information on stem cell research among the public, private, academic and government arenas. The Annual Meeting provides a forum to promote and foster the exchange of research, feature groundbreaking research from all areas of stem cell science and serves as a catalyst for inspired stem cell research around the world. The NeoStem study that shows the successful mobilization of very small embryonic-like stem cells from the bone marrow to peripheral blood, will be presented in a poster session on June 17.

The poster is entitled "Mobilization and Isolation of Human Very Small Embryonic-Like Stem Cells (VSELs) from Peripheral Blood". Authors of the abstract included:

Dr. Mariusz Ratajczak, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Stem Cell Biology Program at University of Louisville, which partners with NeoStem to develop technologies, based on NeoStem's exclusive license, to identify and isolate rare adult stem cells called very small embryonic-like stem cells;

Dr. Wayne A. Marasco, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Chairman of NeoStem's Scientific Advisory Board;

Denis O. Rodgerson, Ph.D., MSC, Director of Stem Cell Science at NeoStem.

Satish Medicetty, Ph.D., formerly Director of Stem Cell Research & Laboratory Operations at NeoStem.

The abstract shows that very small embryonic-like stem cells, normally rare in peripheral blood, can be released in greater numbers from the bone marrow by using an FDA approved drug called G-CSF. They can then be collected by a process called apheresis, a process used as standard-of-care in blood donations. The authors postulate that G-CSF mobilization could become a novel strategy to obtain human pluripotent stem cells, which are stem cells that have the potential to regenerate all the cell types of the body. In this poster, the authors have presented data taken from 28 human donors that demonstrate the significant mobilization of VSELs into peripheral blood following a 2-day G-CSF regimen. Using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the team also has presented the first images of a VSEL that features its morphology and small cell size.

NeoStem is funding research at the University of Louisville to optimally harvest these cells and prove their ability as an advanced form of regenerative medicine to aid in the repair of degenerative, damaged or diseased tissue. NeoStem has developed processes to harvest and cryopreserve these very small embryonic-like stem cells from individual patients for future medical use. Very small embryonic-like stem cells appear to have many of the properties of embryonic stem cells without the negative properties. In addition, since these adult stem cells are collected for the patient's personal use, they overcome two major limitations in the development of stem cell therapies today -- the ethical considerations regarding use of embryonic stem cells and the immunological and infectious disease problems associated with using cells from a third-party donor.