HIV stem cell transplants may soon be tested in human clinical trails, based on successful results in mice.
Posts tagged "stem cells"
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To battle HIV, stem cells step in for fight →
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IBN Discovers Human Neural Stem Cells with Tumor Targeting Ability – A Promising Discovery for Breast Cancer Therapy →
Could engineered human stem cells hold the key to cancer survival? Scientists at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), the world’s first bioengineering and nanotechnology research institute, have discovered that neural stem cells possess the innate ability to target tumor cells outside the central nervous system. This finding, which was demonstrated successfully on breast cancer cells, was recently published in leading peer reviewed journal, Stem Cells.
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Correcting human mitochondrial mutations →
Researchers at the UCLA stem cell center and the departments of chemistry and biochemistry and pathology and laboratory medicine have identified, for the first time, a generic way to correct mutations in human mitochondrial DNA by targeting corrective RNAs, a finding with implications for treating a host of mitochondrial diseases.
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Stem cells can repair a damaged cornea →
A new cornea may be the only way to prevent a patient going blind — but there is a shortage of donated corneas and the queue for transplantation is long. Scientists at the Sahlgrenska Academy have for the first time successfully cultivated stem cells on human corneas, which may in the long term remove the need for donators.
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Radiation treatment transforms breast cancer cells into cancer stem cells →
Researchers with the UCLA Department of Radiation Oncology report that radiation treatment — despite killing half of all tumor cells during every treatment — transforms other cancer cells into treatment-resistant breast cancer stem cells.
The generation of these breast cancer stem cells counteracts the otherwise highly efficient radiation treatment. If scientists can uncover the mechanisms and prevent this transformation from occurring, radiation treatment for breast cancer could become even more effective, said study senior author Dr. Frank Pajonk, an associate professor of radiation oncology and Jonsson Cancer Center researcher.
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Scientists turn skin cells into neural precursors, bypassing stem-cell stage →
Mouse skin cells can be converted directly into cells that become the three main parts of the nervous system, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The finding is an extension of a previous study by the same group showing that mouse and human skin cells can be directly converted into functional neurons.
The multiple successes of the direct conversion method could refute the idea that pluripotency (a term that describes the ability of stem cells to become nearly any cell in the body) is necessary for a cell to transform from one cell type to another. Together, the results raise the possibility that embryonic stem cell research and another technique called “induced pluripotency” could be supplanted by a more direct way of generating specific types of cells for therapy or research.
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Embryonic Stem Cells Appear Safe, May Help Eye Disease →
In the first published results from a clinical trial using human embryonic stem cells, two legally blind patients who received an injection of hESC-derived cells in one eye have experienced no harmful side effects and appear to have slightly better vision. Although the result is preliminary, it is an important milestone for the struggling hESC field.
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Could stem cells save snow leopards? →
Scientists have produced embryonic stem-like cells from the tissue of an adult snow leopard for the first time.
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Scientists learn how stem cell implants help heal traumatic brain injury →
For years, researchers seeking new therapies for traumatic brain injury have been tantalized by the results of animal experiments with stem cells. In numerous studies, stem cell implantation has substantially improved brain function in experimental animals with brain trauma. But just how these improvements occur has remained a mystery.
Now, an important part of this puzzle has been pieced together by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. In experiments with both laboratory rats and an apparatus that enabled them to simulate the impact of trauma on human neurons, they identified key molecular mechanisms by which implanted human neural stem cells — stem cells that are in the process of developing into neurons but have not yet taken their final form — aid recovery from traumatic axonal injury.
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Stem cells: Fountain of youth for old mice? →
Mice bred to age too quickly live longer, healthier lives after being injected with stem cell-like progenitor cells derived from the muscles of young, healthy animals.
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Stem cells may help heart pump more blood after attack →
It looks as though a broken heart can mend itself, given a little technological assistance. Stem cells taken from the very organ that needs fixing may help it work better after a heart attack.
Cardiac stem cells can renew themselves and can form one of three types of cell that make up heart tissue. Roberto Bolli and his colleagues at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, reckoned that they might improve heart function if injected after a heart attack.
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Researchers engineer adult stem cells that do not age →
Biomedical researchers at the University at Buffalo have engineered adult stem cells that scientists can grow continuously in culture, a discovery that could speed development of cost-effective treatments for diseases including heart disease, diabetes, immune disorders and neurodegenerative diseases.
UB scientists created the new cell lines – named “MSC Universal” – by genetically altering mesenchymal stem cells, which are found in bone marrow and can differentiate into cell types including bone, cartilage, muscle, fat, and beta-pancreatic islet cells.
The researchers say the breakthrough overcomes a frustrating barrier to progress in the field of regenerative medicine: The difficulty of growing adult stem cells for clinical applications.
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Human embryonic stem cells purified in new, rapid technique →
UCSF researchers are reporting the first success in very rapidly purifying one type of embryonic stem cell from a mix of many different types of embryonic stem cells in the culture dish. The technique, which avoids the need to genetically alter the cells to distinguish them, is a key advance, the researchers say, for obtaining the appropriate cells for repairing specific damaged tissues.
The new strategy links two existing technologies for the first time: the ability to identify specific embryonic stem cell types in a culture of different embryonic stem cells, and a way to efficiently sort them at a very high rate, a procedure known as “high throughput” processing.
Source eurekalert.org -
Therapeutic potential of embryonic stem cells →
Are stem cells ready for prime time?
The therapeutic potential of embryonic stem cells has been an intense focus of study and discussion in biomedical research and has resulted in technologies to produce human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). Derived by epigenetic reprogramming of human fibroblasts, these hiPSCs are thought to be almost identical to human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and provide great promise for patient-tailored regenerative medicine therapies. However, recent studies have suggested noteworthy differences between these two stem cell types which require additional comparative analyses.
Scientists at Children’s Memorial Research Center at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine investigated the expression of key members of the Nodal embryonic signaling pathway, critical to maintaining pluripotency, in hiPSC and hESC cell lines. Nodal is an important morphogen – a soluble molecule that can regulate cell fate – in embryological systems that requires tight regulatory control of its biological function.
Source eurekalert.org
