Source: University at Buffalo
Date: May 28, 2009
Summary:
University at Buffalo researchers have demonstrated for the first time that injecting adult bone marrow stem cells into skeletal muscle can repair cardiac tissue, reversing heart failure. Using an animal model, the researchers showed that this non-invasive procedure increased myocytes, or heart cells, by two-fold and reduced cardiac tissue injury by 60 percent. The therapy also improved function of the left ventricle, the primary pumping chamber of the heart, by 40 percent and reduced fibrosis, the hardening of the heart lining that impairs its ability to contract, by up to 50 percent.
The paper reporting this development appears online in the Articles-in-Press section of the American Journal of Physiology -- Heart Circulation Physiology .
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
New Therapy Substitutes Missing Protein in Those with Muscular Dystrophy
Source: University of Minnesota
Date: May 26, 2009
Summary:
Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School have discovered a new therapy that shows potential to treat people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a fatal disease and the most common form of muscular dystrophy in children. In the mouse model, researchers were able to substitute for the missing protein – dystrophin, which forms a key part of the framework that holds muscle tissue together – that results in the disease, effectively repairing weakened muscle tissue.
Researchers injected dystrophic mice with a protein called utrophin – a very close relative of dystrophin – that was modified with a cell-penetrating tag, called TAT. The study is the first to establish the efficacy and feasibility of the TAT-utrophin-based protein as a viable therapy for the treatment of muscular dystrophy as well as cardiac muscle diseases caused by loss of dystrophin. The research is published in the May 26, 2009 issue of PLoS Medicine.
Date: May 26, 2009
Summary:
Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School have discovered a new therapy that shows potential to treat people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a fatal disease and the most common form of muscular dystrophy in children. In the mouse model, researchers were able to substitute for the missing protein – dystrophin, which forms a key part of the framework that holds muscle tissue together – that results in the disease, effectively repairing weakened muscle tissue.
Researchers injected dystrophic mice with a protein called utrophin – a very close relative of dystrophin – that was modified with a cell-penetrating tag, called TAT. The study is the first to establish the efficacy and feasibility of the TAT-utrophin-based protein as a viable therapy for the treatment of muscular dystrophy as well as cardiac muscle diseases caused by loss of dystrophin. The research is published in the May 26, 2009 issue of PLoS Medicine.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Stem cells hold promise in treating retinal degeneration
Source: University of Louisville
Date: May 21, 2009
Summary:
A team of University of Louisville scientists have discovered that stem cells taken from bone marrow can restore damaged retinal tissue by generating new cells. This is the first known study where stem cells derived from bone marrow have been used to restore the pigmented cell layer just outside the retina or the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). During their experiments, UofL researchers found that bone-marrow derived stem cells (BMSCs) were attracted to damaged RPE, and were able to differentiate or move from less specialized cells into components of RPE. The study, published recently in the Archives of Ophthalmology. The research moves science a step closer to helping those who suffer from vision loss and blindness due to age-related macular degeneration and hereditary retinal degenerations.
Date: May 21, 2009
Summary:
A team of University of Louisville scientists have discovered that stem cells taken from bone marrow can restore damaged retinal tissue by generating new cells. This is the first known study where stem cells derived from bone marrow have been used to restore the pigmented cell layer just outside the retina or the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). During their experiments, UofL researchers found that bone-marrow derived stem cells (BMSCs) were attracted to damaged RPE, and were able to differentiate or move from less specialized cells into components of RPE. The study, published recently in the Archives of Ophthalmology. The research moves science a step closer to helping those who suffer from vision loss and blindness due to age-related macular degeneration and hereditary retinal degenerations.
Gene Therapy Could Expand Stem Cells' Promise
Source: New York- Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center/Weill Cornell Medical College
Date: May 21, 2009
Summary:
Once placed into a patient's body, stem cells intended to treat or cure a disease could end up wreaking havoc simply because they are no longer under the control of the clinician. But gene therapy has the potential to solve this problem, according to a perspective article from physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center published in a recent issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell. The paper details strategies for genetically modifying stem cells prior to transplantation in order to ensure their safety.
Date: May 21, 2009
Summary:
Once placed into a patient's body, stem cells intended to treat or cure a disease could end up wreaking havoc simply because they are no longer under the control of the clinician. But gene therapy has the potential to solve this problem, according to a perspective article from physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center published in a recent issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell. The paper details strategies for genetically modifying stem cells prior to transplantation in order to ensure their safety.
New stem cell research unlocks unknown therapies
Source: Karolinska Institutet
Date: May 21, 2009
Summary:
New treatments for the devastating Parkinson's disease and ALS are in clinical studies in Sweden, thanks to breaking new stem cell research. This news was presented today by Dr. Jonas Frisen, Professor of stem cell research at Karolinska Institutet, at the world's largest biotech convention, BIO 2009 in Atlanta.
Date: May 21, 2009
Summary:
New treatments for the devastating Parkinson's disease and ALS are in clinical studies in Sweden, thanks to breaking new stem cell research. This news was presented today by Dr. Jonas Frisen, Professor of stem cell research at Karolinska Institutet, at the world's largest biotech convention, BIO 2009 in Atlanta.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Scientists Develop Novel Method to Stimulate Growth of New Neurons in Adult Brain
Source: University at Buffalo
Date: May 20, 2009
Summary:
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- University at Buffalo researchers have identified a new mechanism that plays a central role in adult brain stem cell development and prompts brain stem cells to differentiate into neurons. Their discovery, known as Integrative FGFR1 Signaling (INFS), has fundamentally challenged the prevailing ideas of how signals are processed in cells during neuronal development. The INFS mechanism is considered capable of repopulating degenerated brain areas, raising possibilities for new treatments for Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, and may be a promising anti-cancer therapy. Results of the research appear in a recent issue of Integrative Biology.
Date: May 20, 2009
Summary:
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- University at Buffalo researchers have identified a new mechanism that plays a central role in adult brain stem cell development and prompts brain stem cells to differentiate into neurons. Their discovery, known as Integrative FGFR1 Signaling (INFS), has fundamentally challenged the prevailing ideas of how signals are processed in cells during neuronal development. The INFS mechanism is considered capable of repopulating degenerated brain areas, raising possibilities for new treatments for Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, and may be a promising anti-cancer therapy. Results of the research appear in a recent issue of Integrative Biology.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Stem Cell Research Made Safer with Latest Discovery
Source: University of California - Riverside
Date: May 15, 2009
Summary:
A new development in stem cell research has resulted from a completed study by a collaboration of scientists using the drug Rapamycin to inhibit mTOR, an intracellular protein necessary in cell proliferation. University of California, Riverside’s Jiayu Liao, assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Bourns College of Engineering, recently published a paper on the results in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences dealing with human embryonic stem cell pluripotency. His team inhibited mTOR using Rapamycin, a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and found that pluripotency (the ability to create all cell types) was impaired, stem cell self-renew was prevented, and endodermal and mesodermal differentiation were enhanced.
Date: May 15, 2009
Summary:
A new development in stem cell research has resulted from a completed study by a collaboration of scientists using the drug Rapamycin to inhibit mTOR, an intracellular protein necessary in cell proliferation. University of California, Riverside’s Jiayu Liao, assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Bourns College of Engineering, recently published a paper on the results in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences dealing with human embryonic stem cell pluripotency. His team inhibited mTOR using Rapamycin, a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and found that pluripotency (the ability to create all cell types) was impaired, stem cell self-renew was prevented, and endodermal and mesodermal differentiation were enhanced.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
How an enzyme tells stem cells which way to divide
Source: University of Oregon
Date: May 14, 2009
Summary:
Driving Miranda, a protein in fruit flies crucial to switch a stem cell's fate, is not as complex as biologists thought, according to University of Oregon biochemists. They've found that one enzyme (aPKC) stands alone and acts as a traffic cop that directs which roads daughter cells will take.
"Wherever aPKC is at on a cell's cortex or membrane, Miranda isn't," says Kenneth E. Prehoda, a professor in the chemistry department and member of the University of Oregon's Institute of Molecular Biology. When a stem cell duplicates into daughter cells, the side, or cortical domain, containing aPKC (atypical protein kinase C) continues as a stem cell, while the other domain with Miranda becomes a differentiated cell such as a neuron that forms the central nervous system.
Prehoda and co-author Scott X. Atwood, who studied in Prehoda's lab and recently earned his doctorate, describe how the mechanism works in the May 12 issue of the journal Current Biology.
Date: May 14, 2009
Summary:
Driving Miranda, a protein in fruit flies crucial to switch a stem cell's fate, is not as complex as biologists thought, according to University of Oregon biochemists. They've found that one enzyme (aPKC) stands alone and acts as a traffic cop that directs which roads daughter cells will take.
"Wherever aPKC is at on a cell's cortex or membrane, Miranda isn't," says Kenneth E. Prehoda, a professor in the chemistry department and member of the University of Oregon's Institute of Molecular Biology. When a stem cell duplicates into daughter cells, the side, or cortical domain, containing aPKC (atypical protein kinase C) continues as a stem cell, while the other domain with Miranda becomes a differentiated cell such as a neuron that forms the central nervous system.
Prehoda and co-author Scott X. Atwood, who studied in Prehoda's lab and recently earned his doctorate, describe how the mechanism works in the May 12 issue of the journal Current Biology.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Embryo's heartbeat drives blood stem cell formation
Source: Children's Hospital Boston
Date: May 13, 2009
Summary:
Biologists have long wondered why the embryonic heart begins beating so early, before the tissues actually need to be infused with blood. Two groups of researchers from Children's Hospital Boston, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) -- presenting multiple lines of evidence from zebrafish, mice and mouse embryonic stem cells -- provide an intriguing answer: A beating heart and blood flow are necessary for development of the blood system, which relies on mechanical stresses to cue its formation.
Their studies, published online by the journals Cell and Nature, respectively, on May 13, together offer clues that may help in treating blood diseases such as leukemia, immune deficiency and sickle cell anemia, suggesting new ways scientists can make the types of blood cells a patient needs. This would help patients who require marrow or cord blood transplants, who do not have a perfect donor match.
Date: May 13, 2009
Summary:
Biologists have long wondered why the embryonic heart begins beating so early, before the tissues actually need to be infused with blood. Two groups of researchers from Children's Hospital Boston, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) -- presenting multiple lines of evidence from zebrafish, mice and mouse embryonic stem cells -- provide an intriguing answer: A beating heart and blood flow are necessary for development of the blood system, which relies on mechanical stresses to cue its formation.
Their studies, published online by the journals Cell and Nature, respectively, on May 13, together offer clues that may help in treating blood diseases such as leukemia, immune deficiency and sickle cell anemia, suggesting new ways scientists can make the types of blood cells a patient needs. This would help patients who require marrow or cord blood transplants, who do not have a perfect donor match.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Method To Neutralize Tumor Growth In Embryonic Stem Cell Therapy Discovered
Source: Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Date: May 6, 2009
Summary:
Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered a method to potentially eliminate the tumor-risk factor in utilizing human embryonic stem cells. Their work paves the way for further progress in the promising field of stem cell therapy. A major drawback to the use of stem cells, however, remains the demonstrated tendency of such cells to grow into a specific kind of tumor, called teratoma, when they are implanted in laboratory experiments into mice. It is assumed that this tumorigenic feature will be manifested upon transplantation to human patients as well.
A team of researchers at the Stem Cell Unit in the Department of Genetics at the Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University has been working on various approaches to deal with this problem.
In their latest project, the researchers analyzed the genetic basis of tumor formation from human embryonic stem cells and identified a key gene that is involved in this unique tumorigenicity. This gene, called survivin, is expressed in most cancers and in early stage embryos, but it is almost completely absent from mature normal tissues.
Date: May 6, 2009
Summary:
Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered a method to potentially eliminate the tumor-risk factor in utilizing human embryonic stem cells. Their work paves the way for further progress in the promising field of stem cell therapy. A major drawback to the use of stem cells, however, remains the demonstrated tendency of such cells to grow into a specific kind of tumor, called teratoma, when they are implanted in laboratory experiments into mice. It is assumed that this tumorigenic feature will be manifested upon transplantation to human patients as well.
A team of researchers at the Stem Cell Unit in the Department of Genetics at the Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University has been working on various approaches to deal with this problem.
In their latest project, the researchers analyzed the genetic basis of tumor formation from human embryonic stem cells and identified a key gene that is involved in this unique tumorigenicity. This gene, called survivin, is expressed in most cancers and in early stage embryos, but it is almost completely absent from mature normal tissues.
Extreme makeover: Scientists explore new way to change cell's identity
Source: Stanford University Medical Center
Date: May 5, 2009
Summary:
Even cells aren't immune to peer pressure. Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have now shown that skin cells can be coaxed to behave like muscle cells -- and muscle cells like skin cells -- solely by altering who they hang out with: the relative levels of the ingredients inside the cell. The fickleness of the cells, and the relative ease with which they make the switch, provide a glimpse into the genetic reprogramming that must occur for a cell to become something it's not.
Harnessing these genetic makeovers will allow scientists to better understand how to induce specialized adult cells to revert to a stem-cell-like state in a process called induced pluripotency. These newly pluripotent, or iPS, cells, which can then be encouraged to branch out into a variety of other cell types, have shown increasing promise as possible therapies for disorders like diabetes. But Blau's experiments suggest an intriguing alternative to iPS: that of enticing specialized adult cells to move sideways from one developmental fate to another without requiring a dip into the stem cell pool.
Date: May 5, 2009
Summary:
Even cells aren't immune to peer pressure. Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have now shown that skin cells can be coaxed to behave like muscle cells -- and muscle cells like skin cells -- solely by altering who they hang out with: the relative levels of the ingredients inside the cell. The fickleness of the cells, and the relative ease with which they make the switch, provide a glimpse into the genetic reprogramming that must occur for a cell to become something it's not.
Harnessing these genetic makeovers will allow scientists to better understand how to induce specialized adult cells to revert to a stem-cell-like state in a process called induced pluripotency. These newly pluripotent, or iPS, cells, which can then be encouraged to branch out into a variety of other cell types, have shown increasing promise as possible therapies for disorders like diabetes. But Blau's experiments suggest an intriguing alternative to iPS: that of enticing specialized adult cells to move sideways from one developmental fate to another without requiring a dip into the stem cell pool.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Process controlling T cell growth and production identified
Source: Baylor College of Medicine
Date: May 3, 2009
Summary:
Identifying one of the processes that plays a role in naďve and memory T-cells' growth and production could one day lead to better vaccines and possibly more effective cancer immunotherapy, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital in a report that appears in the current edition of Nature Immunology.
Date: May 3, 2009
Summary:
Identifying one of the processes that plays a role in naďve and memory T-cells' growth and production could one day lead to better vaccines and possibly more effective cancer immunotherapy, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital in a report that appears in the current edition of Nature Immunology.
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