Wednesday, August 29, 2012
New Hope For Spinal Cord Injury Patients
Source: Monash University
Date: 29 August 2012
Summary:
A new antibody could reverse the damage caused by trauma to the central nervous system, according to new research. After a neurotrauma event, such as a spinal cord injury, the body produces an inflammatory response that often leads to scarring and permanent nerve damage. There are currently no treatment options.
Research published in The American Journal of Pathology and led by Monash University's Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) and the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) details how a new antibody, created by the US therapeutic antibody company Lpath, blocks the effects of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA). A molecule released in response to injury, LPA promotes inflammation and nerve cell death.
The research team, led by Dr Yona Goldshmit of ARMI and Dr Alice Pébay of CERA, demonstrated that by administering the antibody soon after the injury occurred, it was possible to preserve nerve cells and limit the amount of scarring, while substantially reducing the losses in motor function.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
First Lung Cells Grown Using Stem Cell Technology
Source: The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids)
Date: August 26, 2012
Summary:
New stem cell research paves the way towards individualized medicine for patients with cystic fibrosis and other lung diseases. The study, led by The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), is the first to successfully use stem cells to produce mature lung cells that could potentially be used to study the disease and test drugs. The study is published in the August 26 advance online edition of Nature Biotechnology.
Researchers were able to induce human embryonic stem cells to become mature lung cells, that contained a gene, called CFTR that when mutated is responsible for cystic fibrosis (CFTR gene was discovered at SickKids in 1989). They then took the experiment a step further, by using induced pluripotent stem cells derived from the skin of patients with cystic fibrosis. They prompted these stem cells to become lung cells, which contain mutations specific to the patients involved. (Induced pluripotent stem cells are adult cells genetically induced to function like embryonic stem cells.)
Once researchers found that they could create lung cells derived from individual patients they then used a compound that resembles an investigational drug that is currently being tested for cystic fibrosis to see if it would rescue the CFTR gene mutation.
The Winnipeg Free Press published a news story today on this development.
Date: August 26, 2012
Summary:
New stem cell research paves the way towards individualized medicine for patients with cystic fibrosis and other lung diseases. The study, led by The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), is the first to successfully use stem cells to produce mature lung cells that could potentially be used to study the disease and test drugs. The study is published in the August 26 advance online edition of Nature Biotechnology.
Researchers were able to induce human embryonic stem cells to become mature lung cells, that contained a gene, called CFTR that when mutated is responsible for cystic fibrosis (CFTR gene was discovered at SickKids in 1989). They then took the experiment a step further, by using induced pluripotent stem cells derived from the skin of patients with cystic fibrosis. They prompted these stem cells to become lung cells, which contain mutations specific to the patients involved. (Induced pluripotent stem cells are adult cells genetically induced to function like embryonic stem cells.)
Once researchers found that they could create lung cells derived from individual patients they then used a compound that resembles an investigational drug that is currently being tested for cystic fibrosis to see if it would rescue the CFTR gene mutation.
The Winnipeg Free Press published a news story today on this development.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Astrocytes Control the Generation of New Neurons from Neural Stem Cells
Source: University of Gothenburg
Date: 22 August 2012
Summary:
Researchers from the Laboratory of astrocyte biology and CNS regeneration headed by Prof. Milos Pekny at the University of Gothenburg just published a research article in a journal Stem Cells on the molecular mechanism that controls generation of new neurons in the brain. Astrocytes are cells that have many functions in the central nervous system, such as the control of neuronal synapses, blood flow, or the brain's response to neurotrauma or stroke.
Reduces brain tissue damage
Prof. Pekny's laboratory together with collaborators have earlier demonstrated that astrocytes reduce the brain tissue damage after stroke and that the integration of transplanted neural stem cells can be largely improved by modulating the activity of astrocytes.
Generation of new neurons
In their current study, the Sahlgrenska Academy researchers show how astrocytes control the generation of new neurons in the brain. An important contribution to this project came from Åbo Academy, one of Sahlgrenska's traditional collaborative partners.
Date: 22 August 2012
Summary:
Researchers from the Laboratory of astrocyte biology and CNS regeneration headed by Prof. Milos Pekny at the University of Gothenburg just published a research article in a journal Stem Cells on the molecular mechanism that controls generation of new neurons in the brain. Astrocytes are cells that have many functions in the central nervous system, such as the control of neuronal synapses, blood flow, or the brain's response to neurotrauma or stroke.
Reduces brain tissue damage
Prof. Pekny's laboratory together with collaborators have earlier demonstrated that astrocytes reduce the brain tissue damage after stroke and that the integration of transplanted neural stem cells can be largely improved by modulating the activity of astrocytes.
Generation of new neurons
In their current study, the Sahlgrenska Academy researchers show how astrocytes control the generation of new neurons in the brain. An important contribution to this project came from Åbo Academy, one of Sahlgrenska's traditional collaborative partners.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Researchers Return Blood Cells to Stem Cell State
Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine
Date: August 21, 2012
Summary:
Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a reliable method to turn the clock back on blood cells, restoring them to a primitive stem cell state from which they can then develop into any other type of cell in the body. The work, described in the Aug. 8 issue of the journal Public Library of Science One (PLoS One), is "Chapter Two" in an ongoing effort to efficiently and consistently convert adult blood cells into stem cells that are highly qualified for clinical and research use in place of human embryonic stem cells, says Elias Zambidis, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of oncology and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering and the Kimmel Cancer Center.
For the new study, the Johns Hopkins team took cord blood cells, treated them with growth factors, and used plasmids to transfer four genes into them. They then delivered an electrical pulse to the cells, making tiny holes in the surface through which the plasmids could slip inside. Once inside, the plasmids triggered the cells to revert to a more primitive cell state. The scientific team next grew some of the treated cells in a dish alone, and some together with irradiated bone-marrow cells.
When scientists compared the cells grown using the blood cell method with iPS cells grown from hair cells and from skin cells, they found that the most superior iPS cells came from blood stem cells treated with just four genes and cultured with the bone marrow cells. These cells converted to a primitive stem cell state within seven to 14 days. Their techniques also were successful in experiments with blood cells from adult bone marrow and from circulating blood.
Date: August 21, 2012
Summary:
Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a reliable method to turn the clock back on blood cells, restoring them to a primitive stem cell state from which they can then develop into any other type of cell in the body. The work, described in the Aug. 8 issue of the journal Public Library of Science One (PLoS One), is "Chapter Two" in an ongoing effort to efficiently and consistently convert adult blood cells into stem cells that are highly qualified for clinical and research use in place of human embryonic stem cells, says Elias Zambidis, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of oncology and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering and the Kimmel Cancer Center.
For the new study, the Johns Hopkins team took cord blood cells, treated them with growth factors, and used plasmids to transfer four genes into them. They then delivered an electrical pulse to the cells, making tiny holes in the surface through which the plasmids could slip inside. Once inside, the plasmids triggered the cells to revert to a more primitive cell state. The scientific team next grew some of the treated cells in a dish alone, and some together with irradiated bone-marrow cells.
When scientists compared the cells grown using the blood cell method with iPS cells grown from hair cells and from skin cells, they found that the most superior iPS cells came from blood stem cells treated with just four genes and cultured with the bone marrow cells. These cells converted to a primitive stem cell state within seven to 14 days. Their techniques also were successful in experiments with blood cells from adult bone marrow and from circulating blood.
Stem Cells Can Become Anything, but Not Without This Protein
Source: University of Michigan Health System
Date: August 21, 2012
Summary:
How do stem cells preserve their ability to become any type of cell in the body? And how do they "decide" to give up that magical state and start specializing? If researchers could answer these questions, our ability to harness stem cells to treat disease could explode. Now, a University of Michigan Medical School team has published a key discovery that could help that goal become reality.
In the current issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, researcher Yali Dou, Ph.D., and her team show the crucial role of a protein called Mof in preserving the 'stem-ness' of stem cells, and priming them to become specialized cells in mice.
Their results show that Mof plays a key role in the "epigenetics" of stem cells -- that is, helping stem cells read and use their DNA. One of the key questions in stem cell research is what keeps stem cells in a kind of eternal youth, and then allows them to start "growing up" to be a specific type of tissue.
The researchers have zeroed in on the factors that add temporary tags to DNA when it's coiled around tiny spools called histones. In order to read their DNA, cells have to unwind it a bit from those spools, allowing the gene-reading mechanisms to get access to the genetic code and transcribe it. The temporary tags added by Mof act as tiny beacons, guiding the "reader" mechanism to the right place.
Date: August 21, 2012
Summary:
How do stem cells preserve their ability to become any type of cell in the body? And how do they "decide" to give up that magical state and start specializing? If researchers could answer these questions, our ability to harness stem cells to treat disease could explode. Now, a University of Michigan Medical School team has published a key discovery that could help that goal become reality.
In the current issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, researcher Yali Dou, Ph.D., and her team show the crucial role of a protein called Mof in preserving the 'stem-ness' of stem cells, and priming them to become specialized cells in mice.
Their results show that Mof plays a key role in the "epigenetics" of stem cells -- that is, helping stem cells read and use their DNA. One of the key questions in stem cell research is what keeps stem cells in a kind of eternal youth, and then allows them to start "growing up" to be a specific type of tissue.
The researchers have zeroed in on the factors that add temporary tags to DNA when it's coiled around tiny spools called histones. In order to read their DNA, cells have to unwind it a bit from those spools, allowing the gene-reading mechanisms to get access to the genetic code and transcribe it. The temporary tags added by Mof act as tiny beacons, guiding the "reader" mechanism to the right place.
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
Neuroscientists Find Brain Stem Cells that May Be Responsible for Higher Functions, Bigger Brains
Source: The Scripps Research Institute
Date: August 7, 2012
Summary:
Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have identified a new stem cell population that may be responsible for giving birth to the neurons responsible for higher thinking. The finding also paves the way for scientists to produce these neurons in culture -- a first step in developing better treatments for cognitive disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism, which result from disrupted connections among these brain cells. Published in the August 10, 2012 issue of the journal Science, the new research reveals how neurons in the uppermost layers of the cerebral cortex form during embryonic brain development.
Date: August 7, 2012
Summary:
Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have identified a new stem cell population that may be responsible for giving birth to the neurons responsible for higher thinking. The finding also paves the way for scientists to produce these neurons in culture -- a first step in developing better treatments for cognitive disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism, which result from disrupted connections among these brain cells. Published in the August 10, 2012 issue of the journal Science, the new research reveals how neurons in the uppermost layers of the cerebral cortex form during embryonic brain development.
Monday, August 06, 2012
Brain's Stem Cells 'Eavesdrop' to Find out When to Act
Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine
Date: August 6, 2012
Summary:
Working with mice, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have figured out how stem cells found in a part of the brain responsible for learning, memory and mood regulation decide to remain dormant or create new brain cells. Apparently, the stem cells "listen in" on the chemical communication among nearby neurons to get an idea about what is stressing the system and when they need to act.
The researchers say understanding this process of chemical signaling may shed light on how the brain reacts to its environment and how current antidepressants work, because in animals these drugs have been shown to increase the number of brain cells. The findings are reported July 29 in the advance online publication of Nature.
Date: August 6, 2012
Summary:
Working with mice, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have figured out how stem cells found in a part of the brain responsible for learning, memory and mood regulation decide to remain dormant or create new brain cells. Apparently, the stem cells "listen in" on the chemical communication among nearby neurons to get an idea about what is stressing the system and when they need to act.
The researchers say understanding this process of chemical signaling may shed light on how the brain reacts to its environment and how current antidepressants work, because in animals these drugs have been shown to increase the number of brain cells. The findings are reported July 29 in the advance online publication of Nature.
Sunday, August 05, 2012
Heart muscle cell grafts suppress arrhythmias after heart attacks in animal study Transplanted heart cells
Source: University of Washington
Date: August 5, 2012
Summary:
Researchers have made a major advance in efforts to regenerate damaged hearts. They discovered that transplanted heart muscle cells, grown from stem cells, electrically couple and beat in sync with the heart’s own muscle. The grafts also reduced the incidence of arrhythmias (irregular heart rhythms) in a guinea pig model of myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). This finding from University of Washington-led research is reported in the Aug. 5 issue of Nature.
Date: August 5, 2012
Summary:
Researchers have made a major advance in efforts to regenerate damaged hearts. They discovered that transplanted heart muscle cells, grown from stem cells, electrically couple and beat in sync with the heart’s own muscle. The grafts also reduced the incidence of arrhythmias (irregular heart rhythms) in a guinea pig model of myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). This finding from University of Washington-led research is reported in the Aug. 5 issue of Nature.
Thursday, August 02, 2012
Embryonic Blood Vessels That Make Blood Stem Cells Can Also Make Beating Heart Muscles
Source: University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
Date: August 2, 2012
Summary:
UCLA stem cell researchers have found for the first time a surprising and unexpected plasticity in the embryonic endothelium, the place where blood stem cells are made in early development. Scientists found that the lack of one transcription factor, a type of gene that controls cell fate by regulating other genes, allows the precursors that normally generate blood stem and progenitor cells in blood forming tissues to become something very unexpected -- beating cardiomyocytes, or heart muscle cells.
The finding is important because it suggests that the endothelium can serve as a source of heart muscle cells. The finding may provide new understanding of how to make cardiac stem cells for use in regenerative medicine. The two-year study is published Aug. 3, 2012 in the peer-reviewed journal Cell.
Date: August 2, 2012
Summary:
UCLA stem cell researchers have found for the first time a surprising and unexpected plasticity in the embryonic endothelium, the place where blood stem cells are made in early development. Scientists found that the lack of one transcription factor, a type of gene that controls cell fate by regulating other genes, allows the precursors that normally generate blood stem and progenitor cells in blood forming tissues to become something very unexpected -- beating cardiomyocytes, or heart muscle cells.
The finding is important because it suggests that the endothelium can serve as a source of heart muscle cells. The finding may provide new understanding of how to make cardiac stem cells for use in regenerative medicine. The two-year study is published Aug. 3, 2012 in the peer-reviewed journal Cell.
Mending a Broken Heart -- With a Molecule That Turns Stem Cells Into Heart Cells
Source: Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute
Date: August 2, 2012
Summary:
Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham), the Human BioMolecular Research Institute, and ChemRegen, Inc. have been searching for molecules that convert stem cells to heart cells for about eight years -- and now they've found one. Writing in the August 3 issue of Cell Stem Cell, the team describes how they sifted through a large collection of drug-like chemicals and uncovered ITD-1, a molecule that can be used to generate unlimited numbers of new heart cells from stem cells.
Date: August 2, 2012
Summary:
Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham), the Human BioMolecular Research Institute, and ChemRegen, Inc. have been searching for molecules that convert stem cells to heart cells for about eight years -- and now they've found one. Writing in the August 3 issue of Cell Stem Cell, the team describes how they sifted through a large collection of drug-like chemicals and uncovered ITD-1, a molecule that can be used to generate unlimited numbers of new heart cells from stem cells.
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
New Treatment Target for Deadly Brain Tumors
Source: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Date: August 1, 2012
Summary:
A study by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers published August 1 in Nature reveals new insight into why the most common, deadly kind of brain tumor in adults recurs and identifies a potential target for future therapies.
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) currently is considered incurable. Despite responding to initial therapy, the cancer almost always returns. GBM is a fast-growing, malignant brain tumor that occurred in 15 percent of the estimated 22,000 Americans diagnosed with brain and nervous system tumors in 2010. The median survival rate is about 15 months, according to the National Cancer Institute. Using a genetically engineered mouse model of GBM, the researchers found that the resting tumor cells act more like stem cells -- the non-cancerous cells the body uses to repair and replenish itself,
Date: August 1, 2012
Summary:
A study by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers published August 1 in Nature reveals new insight into why the most common, deadly kind of brain tumor in adults recurs and identifies a potential target for future therapies.
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) currently is considered incurable. Despite responding to initial therapy, the cancer almost always returns. GBM is a fast-growing, malignant brain tumor that occurred in 15 percent of the estimated 22,000 Americans diagnosed with brain and nervous system tumors in 2010. The median survival rate is about 15 months, according to the National Cancer Institute. Using a genetically engineered mouse model of GBM, the researchers found that the resting tumor cells act more like stem cells -- the non-cancerous cells the body uses to repair and replenish itself,
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