Sunday, February 28, 2010

Root or shoot: Power struggle between genetic master switches decides stem cell fate

Source: Salk Institute
Date: February 28, 2010

Summary:

The first order of business for any fledgling plant embryo is to determine which end grows the shoot and which end puts down roots. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute expose the turf wars between two groups of antagonistic genetic master switches that set up a plant's polar axis with a root on one end and a shoot on the other.

Plant embryogenesis establishes a very simple structure that contains two stem cell populations: the shoot meristem, which will give rise to all the "above-ground" organs such as the stem, the leaves and the flowers, and is the site of photosynthesis; and the root meristem, which gives rise to the root system, which lies below the ground and provides water and nutrients to the plant.

The Salk researchers' findings are published in the Feb. 28, 2010 advance online edition of the journal Nature.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Offering Hope for Tissue Regeneration

Source: Lifespan / Rhode Island Hospital
Date: February 26, 2010

Summary:

Researchers at Rhode Island Hospital have discovered how cells communicate with each other during times of cellular injury. The findings shed new light on how the body repairs itself when organs become diseased, through small particles known as microvesicles, and offer hope for tissue regeneration. The paper is published in the March 2010 edition of the journal Experimental Hematology and is now available online in advance of publication.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Gene-based stem cell therapy specifically removes cell receptor that attracts HIV

Source: University of California - Los Angeles
Date: February 25, 2010

UCLA AIDS Institute researchers successfully removed CCR5 — a cell receptor to which HIV-1 binds for infection but which the human body does not need — from human cells. Individuals who naturally lack the CCR5 receptor have been found to be essentially resistant to HIV. Using a humanized mouse model, the researchers transplanted a small RNA molecule known as short hairpin RNA (shRNA), which induced RNA interference into human blood stem cells to inhibit the expression of CCR5 in human immune cells. The findings provide evidence that this strategy can be an effective way to treat HIV-infected individuals, by prompting long-term and stable reduction of CCR5. The results are being published in Blood, Journal of the American Society of Hematology.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Stem Cells Restore Sight in Mouse Model of Retinitis Pigmentosa

Source: Columbia University Medical Center
Date: February 24, 2010

Summary:

An international research team led by Columbia University Medical Center successfully used mouse embryonic stem cells to replace diseased retinal cells and restore sight in a mouse model of retinitis pigmentosa. This strategy could potentially become a new treatment for retinitis pigmentosa, a leading cause of blindness that affects approximately one in 3,000 to 4,000 people, or 1.5 million people worldwide. The study appears online ahead of print in the journal Transplantation (March 27, 2010 print issue).

Research shows modified adult stem cells may be helpful in spinal cord injury

Source: University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Date: February 24, 2010

Summary:

HOUSTON -- Researchers at UTHealth have demonstrated in rats that transplanting genetically modified adult stem cells into an injured spinal cord can help restore the electrical pathways associated with movement. The results are published in today’s issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

In spinal cord injury, demyelination, or the destruction of the myelin sheath in the central nervous system, occurs. The myelin sheath, produced by cells called oligodendrocytes, wraps around the axons of nerves and helps speed activity and insulate electrical conduction. Without it, the nerves cannot send messages to make muscles move.

The research team, led by Qilin Cao, M.D., principal investigator and associate professor of neurosurgery at UTHealth (The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston), discovered that transplanted adult stem cells (oligodendrocyte precursor cells or OPC) from the spinal cord could become oligodendrocytes. The new cells helped restore electrical pathways of the spinal cord and therefore, function, in a process called remyelination.

Monday, February 22, 2010

The mouse with a human liver: a new model for the treatment of liver disease

Source: Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Date: February 22, 2010

Summary:

LA JOLLA, CA—How do you study—and try to cure in the laboratory—an infection that only humans can get? A team led by Salk Institute researchers does it by generating a mouse with an almost completely human liver. This "humanized" mouse is susceptible to human liver infections and responds to human drug treatments, providing a new way to test novel therapies for debilitating human liver diseases and other diseases with liver involvement such as malaria. Mice whose own liver cells have been replaced with human hepatocytes (shown in green) can be successfully infected with Hepatitis B virus (shown in red) providing a new way to test novel therapies for debilitating human liver diseases. The Salk researchers' findings will be published in the Feb. 22, 2010 online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Stem Cells: Turning Back the Molecular Clock to Reverse Rapid Aging

Source: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Date: February 17, 2010

Summary:

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have created a specialized group of stem cells from patients who have dyskeratosis congenita, a disorder that causes accelerated aging and results in bone marrow failure. In new research reported in Nature, the scientists show that using a genetic reprogramming technique to “turn back the molecular clock” in these cells appears to reset the cells and reverses rapid aging.

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells From Patients With a Premature Aging Disorder Bring Surprises

Source: Children's Hospital Boston
Date: February 17, 2010

Summary:

Boston, Mass. -- In a study that ties stem cell research together with research on aging and cancer, investigators at Children's Hospital Boston have used genetic reprogramming to create cells from patients with a rare premature-aging disorder that are able to rebuild their telomeres--the tips of chromosomes that must be maintained to prevent a cell from "aging" and enabling it to divide and make copies of itself.

Publishing in Nature (Advance Online) on February 17, researchers in the laboratory of George Q. Daley, MD, PhD, Director of the Stem Cell Transplantation Program at Children's, report successfully reactivating the cellular enzyme telomerase, which maintains the telomeres, in patients with dyskeratosis congenita. In this rare genetic disorder, genetic mutations cause telomerase to be defective, leaving the chromosomes without protection from damage and unable to compensate for the natural shortening of telomeres that occurs when a cell divides. As a result, a patient's cells "age" more quickly, leading to bone-marrow failure (an inability to make enough blood cells), degradation of multiple tissues, premature aging-like symptoms and a much-shortened lifespan.

USA Today and Technology Review carried news stories on this news release today.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

UWM engineer creates unique software that predicts stem cell fate

Source: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Date: February 16, 2010

Summary:

A software program created by an engineer at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UWM) can not only predict the types of specialized cells a stem cell will produce, but also foresee the outcome before the stem cell even divides.

The software, developed by Andrew Cohen, an assistant professor of electrical engineering, analyzes time-lapse images capturing live stem cell behaviors. It will allow scientists to search for mechanisms that control stem cell specialization, the main obstacle in advancing the use of stem cell therapy for treatment of disease. It could also lead to new research into causes of cancer, which involves cells that continuously self-renew.

The research is published Feb. 7 in the journal Nature Methods. Co-authors are Michel Cayouette and Francisco Gomez neurobiologists at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montreal, and Badri Roysam, a computer engineering professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The software is 87 percent accurate in determining the specific "offspring" a stem cell will ultimately produce, and 99 percent accurate in predicting when self-renewal of these stem cells will end in specialization.

Monday, February 15, 2010

New study suggests stem cells sabotage their own DNA to produce new tissues

Source: Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Date: February 15, 2010

Summary:

A new study from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and the University of Ottawa suggests that stem cells intentionally break their own DNA as a way of regulating tissue development. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), could dramatically change how researchers think about tissue development, stem cells and cancer.

The discovery has important implications for a number of areas. It could help researchers develop better ways to activate stem cells, so that they can produce new tissues for therapeutic purposes. It also suggests that DNA mutations, which can contribute to a variety of diseases, may initially occur as a result of a normal cellular process. And it has implications for researchers developing therapies that inhibit programmed cell death, suggesting that such therapies may also inhibit normal tissue development.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Cord blood stem cells show promise treating cerebral palsy

Source: KOLD-TV - Tucson, Arizona
Posted: Feb 11, 2010 3:56 PM
Updated: Feb 12, 2010 11:58 AM

Summary:

In a TV new segment, KOLD-TV News reports scientists at the Medical College of Georgia will begin the first FDA-approved trial to see if stem cells from umbilical cord blood can improve function in children with cerebral palsy:

The Medical College of Georgia will use cord blood stem cells, the building blocks of the body, to treat 40 children who have cerebral palsy, a type of brain injury. The stem cells come from each child's own cord blood stored here in Tucson when they were born. This is the first Food and Drug Administration-approved clinical trial. The study will include 40 children age 2-12 whose parents have stored cord blood at the Cord Blood Registry in Tucson, Ariz.

MCG to conduct first FDA-approved stem cell trial in pediatric cerebral palsy

Source: Medical College of Georgia
Date: February 11, 2010

Summary:

Medical College of Georgia researchers are conducting the first FDA-approved clinical trial to determine whether an infusion of stem cells from umbilical cord blood can improve the quality of life for children with cerebral palsy. The study will include 40 children age 2-12 whose parents have stored cord blood at the Cord Blood Registry in Tucson, Ariz. Umbilical cord blood is rich in stem cells, which can divide and morph into different types of cells throughout the body, said Dr. James Carroll, professor and chief of pediatric neurology in MCG School of Medicine and principal investigator on the study.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

StemCells, Inc. Announces First Human Neural Stem Cell Transplant in Landmark Myelination Disorder Trial

Source: StemCells, Inc.
Date: February 10, 2010

Summary:

In an official company news release, Stem Cells, Inc., a biotechnology company in the field of stem cell research, announced that human neural stem cells have been used to treat Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease ( PMD), a pediatric neurological disorder:

StemCells, Inc. announced today that its proprietary HuCNS-SC(R) human neural stem cells have been used to treat the first patient enrolled in its Phase I clinical trial in Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease (PMD), a myelination disorder that afflicts male children. ...Myelin is the substance that surrounds and insulates nerve cells' communications fibers (also known as axons). Without sufficient myelination, these fibers are unable to properly transmit nerve impulses, leading to a progressive loss of neurological function. Multiple sclerosis, transverse myelitis and certain types of cerebral palsy are more commonly known myelination disorders that also affect the central nervous system.

Monday, February 08, 2010

Scientists discover gene that improves the quality of reprogrammed stem cells

Source: Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore
Date: February 8, 2010

Summary:

Scientists from the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), a biomedical research institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), have discovered a genetic molecule, called Tbx3, which greatly improves the quality of stem cells that have been reprogrammed from differentiated cells (stem cells reprogrammed from differentiated cells are known as induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells). The study was published on 7 February 2010 in the prestigious journal Nature.

Sunday, February 07, 2010

Virus-free technique enables scientists to easily make stem cells pluripotent

Source: Stanford University Medical Center
Date: February 7, 2010

Summary:

Tiny circles of DNA are the key to a new and easier way to transform stem cells from human fat into induced pluripotent stem cells for use in regenerative medicine, say scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Unlike other commonly used techniques, the method, which is based on standard molecular biology practices, does not use viruses to introduce genes into the cells or permanently alter a cell's genome.

It is the first example of reprogramming adult cells to pluripotency in this manner, and is hailed by the researchers as a major step toward the use of such cells in humans. They hope that the ease of the technique and its relative safety will smooth its way through the necessary FDA approval process.

The Stanford researchers used the so-called minicircles - rings of DNA about one-half the size of those usually used to reprogram cell - to induce pluripotency in stem cells from human fat. Pluripotent cells can then be induced to become many different specialized cell types. Although the researchers plan to first use these cells to better understand - and perhaps one day treat-human heart disease, induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, are a starting point for research on many human diseases. The research will be published online Feb. 7 in Nature Methods. Research assistant Fangjun Jia, PhD is the lead author of the work.

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Scientists Map Epigenome of Human Stem Cells During Development

Source: Agency for Science, Technology and Research (ASTAR) and The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI)
Date: February 4, 2010

Summary:

Scientists at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) led an international effort to build a map that shows in detail how the human genome is modified during embryonic development. This detailed mapping is a significant move towards the success of targeted differentiation of stem cells into specific organs, which is a crucial consideration for stem cell therapy. The study was published in the genomics journal Genome Research on February 4, 2010.

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

3-D scaffold provides clean, biodegradable structure for stem cell growth

Source:University of Washington
Date: February 2, 2010

Summary:

Medical researchers were shocked to discover that virtually all human embryonic stem cell lines being used in 2005 were contaminated. Animal byproducts used to line Petri dishes had left traces on the human cells. If those cells had been implanted in a human body they likely would have been rejected by the patient's immune system. Even today, with new stem cell lines approved for use in medical research, there remains a risk that these cells will be contaminated in the same way. Most research labs still use animal-based "feeder layers" because it remains the cheapest and most reliable way to get stem cells to multiply.

Materials scientists at the University of Washington have now created an alternative. They built a three-dimensional scaffold out of a natural material that mimics the binding sites for stem cells, allowing the cells to reproduce on a clean, biodegradable structure. Results published in the journal Biomaterials show that human embryonic stem cells grow and multiply readily on the structure.

Monday, February 01, 2010

New Form of Stem Cell Communication Rescues Diseased Neurons

Source: Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute
Date: February 1, 2010

Summary:

LA JOLLA, Calif., -- Investigators at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham, formerly Burnham Institute for Medical Research), the Karolinska Institutet, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Harvard Medical School and Université Libre de Bruxelles have demonstrated in mouse models that transplanted stems cells, when in direct contact with diseased neurons, send signals through specialized channels that rescue the neurons from death. These direct cell-to-cell connections may also play a role in normal development by laying down the blueprint for more mature electrical connections between neurons and other cells. The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on February 1.