Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have shown the ability to turn scar tissue that forms after a heart attack into heart muscle cells using a new process that eliminates the need for stem cell transplant. The study, published online April 26 in the journal Circulation Research, used molecules called microRNAs to trigger the cardiac tissue conversion in a lab dish and, for the first t... (read more)
Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have identified a molecular pathway that controls the retention and release of the brain's stem cells. The discovery offers new insights into normal and abnormal neurologic development and could eventually lead to regenerative therapies for neurologic disease and injury. The findings, from a collaborative effort of the laboratories of Drs. Anna La... (read more)
Northwestern University scientists have developed a powerful analytical method that they have used to direct stem cell differentiation. Out of millions of possibilities, they rapidly identified the chemical and physical structures that can cue stem cells to become osteocytes, cells found in mature bone. Researchers can use the method, called nanocombinatoric... (read more)
Researchers at the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics have discovered an answer to the long-standing mystery of how brain cells can both remember new memories while also maintaining older ones. They found that specific neurons in a brain region called the dentate gyrus serve distinct roles in memory formation depending on whether the neural stem cells that produced them were of old versus young a... (read more)
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital say they have extracted stem cells from human ovaries and made them generate egg cells. The advance, if confirmed, might provide a new source of eggs for treating infertility, though scientists say it is far too early to tell if the work holds such promise. Women are born with a complement of egg cells that must last throughout life. The ability to isolate ste... (read more)
A UCSF stem cell study conducted in mice suggests a novel strategy for treating damaged cardiac tissue in patients following a heart attack. The approach potentially could improve cardiac function, minimize scar size, lead to the development of new blood vessels -- and avoid the risk of tissue rejection. n the investigation, reported online in the journal PLoS ONE, the researchers iso... (read more)
Damage caused by a heart attack has been healed using stem cells gathered from the patient's own heart, according to doctors in the US. The amount of scar tissue was halved in the small safety trial reported in the Lancet medical journal. The authors said there was also an "unprecedented" increase in new heart muscle. The British Heart Foundation said it was "early days", but cou... (read more)
Damage caused by a heart attack has been healed using stem cells gathered from the patient's own heart, according to doctors in the US. The amount of scar tissue was halved in the small safety trial reported in the Lancet medical journal. The authors said there was also an "unprecedented" increase in new heart muscle. The British Heart Foundation said it was "early days", but could &quo... (read more)
Skin cells have been converted directly into cells which develop into the main components of the brain, by researchers studying mice in California. The experiment, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, skipped the middle "stem cell" stage in the process. The researchers said they were "thrilled" at the potential medical uses. Far more tests are needed before the technique ... (read more)
For the first time ever, stem cells from umbilical cords have been converted into other types of cells, which may eventually lead to new treatment options for spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis, among other nervous system diseases. "This is the first time this has been done with non-embryonic stem cells," says James Hickman, a University of Central Florida bioengineer and lea... (read more)
The world's first monkeys to be created from the embryos of several individuals have been born at a US research centre. Scientists at the Oregon National Primate Research Centre produced the animals, known as chimeras, by sticking together between three and six rhesus monkey embryos in the early stages of their development. Three animals were born at the laboratory, a singleton and t... (read more)
Mice bred to age too quickly seemed to have sipped from the fountain of youth after scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine injected them with stem cell-like progenitor cells derived from the muscle of young, healthy animals. Instead of becoming infirm and dying early as untreated mice did, animals that got the stem/progenitor cells improved their health ... (read more)
A compound produced from fish oil that appears to target leukemia stem cells could lead to a cure for the disease, according to Penn State researchers. The compound -- delta-12-protaglandin J3, or D12-PGJ3 -- targeted and killed the stem cells of chronic myelogenous leukemia, or CML, in mice, said Sandeep Prabhu, associate professor of immunology and molecular toxicology in the Department of Veterinary and Med... (read more)
University of California, Berkeley, neuroscientists have discovered a genetic trigger that makes the nose renew its smell sensors, providing hope for new therapies for people who have lost their sense of smell due to trauma or old age. The gene tells olfactory stem cells ‑ the adult tissue stem cells in the nose ‑ to mature into the sensory neurons that detect odors and relay that information to th... (read more)
A rogue surgeon injects stem cells from a fetus into a sick man's brain. The cells morph and form body parts. When the man dies, the pathologist finds cartilage, skin and bone clumped in his brain. The scene is not from a horror movie; it happened to Max Truex, a former Olympic runner who suffered from Parkinson's disease. The case sent a chill through the scientific community when it came to ligh... (read more)
British scientists have made the first human embryonic stem cells of a high enough grade to use in patients and deposited them in a public stem cell bank for development in human trials by drug companies and researchers by 2014. A team from King's College London said on Monday they were submitting two clinical-grade stem cell lines to the UK Stem Cell Bank (UKSBC), which will test and validate them befor... (read more)
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have shown how stem cells, together with other cells, repair damaged tissue in the mouse spinal cord. The results are of potential significance to the development of therapies for spinal cord injury. There is hope that damage to the spinal cord and brain will one day be treatable using stem cells (i.e. immature cells that can develop into different cell types). Stem cell-l... (read more)
Two small studies of cardiac stem cells for the treatment of heart failure have shown promise, but ABC News, CBS News and other media outlets are throwing around words like “medical breakthrough” and “heart failure cure.” ABC News correspondent Richard Besser was so enthusiastic that anchor Diane Sawyer commented that she had never seen him “so excited.” The first author of one of the st... (read more)
Researchers have used stem cells obtained from human embryos to successfully treat Parkinson's disease in mice and rats, a key step in the quest to develop a similar approach for people. In a study published Sunday in the journal Nature, scientists described how they converted human embryonic stem cells into nerve cells that produced the brain chemical dopamine. When these nerve cells were transplanted into the... (read more)
Europe's highest court has ruled that stem cells from human embryos cannot be patented, in a case that could have major implications for medicine. Scientists say the Court of Justice decision may impede European research into the use of stem cell therapies, or drive research abroad. The ruling follows a challenge by Greenpeace over a patent for nerve cells from embryonic stem cells. To continue reading, click the link below.
British scientists have developed a new stem cell technique for growing working liver cells which could eventually avoid the need for costly and risky liver transplants. A team of researchers led by the Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge used cutting-edge methods to correct a genetic mutation in stem cells derived from a patient's skin biopsy, and then grew them into fresh liver cells. B... (read more)
Hwang Woo-suk, who was stripped of his stem cell research license in 2006 over ethical issues now claims to have successfully cloned eight coyotes using techniques he developed in the first cloning of a dog in 2005. "We injected a coyote's somatic cell into a dog's egg and produced a cloned embryo. The pups were born 60 days after we transplanted the embryo into the dog's uterus," he said. Convicted ... (read more)
British surgeons are to take part in the first trial in patients of a human embryonic stem cell therapy to gain approval from regulators in Europe. Surgeons at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London will inject cells into the eyes of 12 patients with an incurable eye disease called Stargardt's macular dystrophy, one of the main causes of blindness in young people. To continue reading, follow the link below.
In a sceptical era, when few people still believe that miracle cures can be poured out of medicine bottles, stem cells still fire the imagination and create hope. Maybe that's because it is not just the patients who want to believe that stem cells may one day enable them to walk again, but also the doctors and the scientists. There is genuine scientific excitement over the concept of using the body's own cellular building bl... (read more)
Stem cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide (through mitosis) and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells. In mammals, there are two broad types of stem cells: embryonic stem cells, which are isolated from the inner cell mass of blastocysts, and adult stem cells, which are found in various tissues. In adult organisms, stem cells and progenitor cells act as a repair system for the body, replenishing adult tissues. In a developing embryo, stem cells can differentiate into all the specialized cells, but also maintain the normal turnover of regenerative organs, such as blood, skin, or intestinal tissues.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_Cells
© 2012 Healthnoise — All rights reserved.