A University of Missouri scientist has discovered that by combining cells from bone marrow with a new drug may help cure type 1 diabetes. The discovery is reported in the current online issue of Diabetes.
Study of 38,000 blood stem cell transplant recipients, led by Dr. Theresa Hahn of Roswell Park Cancer Institute, shows that survival rates increased significantly over 12 years, and numbers of patients receiving transplants grew dramatically.
Transplantation of human stem cells in an experiment conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison improved survival and muscle function in rats used to model ALS, a nerve disease that destroys nerve control of muscles, causing death by respiratory failure.
In new research published this week, Anita Bhattacharyya, a neuroscientist at the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reports on brain cells that were grown from skin cells of individuals with Down syndrome.
Scientists have turned their view of osteoarthritis inside out. Instead of seeing the painful degenerative disease as a problem primarily of the cartilage that cushions joints, they now have evidence that the bone underneath the cartilage is also a key player and exacerbates the damage. Blocking the action of a critical bone regulation protein in mice halts progression of the disease.
The “Stem Cell Research Italy” Association (www.stemcellitaly.org) and the “Sbarro Health Research Organization” (www.shro.org) make a public plea for a correct use of stem cell therapy in Italy and Europe.
Raising hopes for cell-based therapies, UC San Francisco researchers have created the first functioning human thymus tissue from embryonic stem cells in the laboratory. The researchers showed that, in mice, the tissue can be used to foster the development of white blood cells the body needs to mount healthy immune responses and to prevent harmful autoimmune reactions.
According to findings from an early preclinical study led by Brett Mitchell, PhD, an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine in the Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVRI) at Texas A&M University College of Medicine, there is evidence that administrating placenta-derived cells may help reverse the symptoms associated with preeclampsia in a matter of days after dosing with no harmful effects to mother or baby.
Scientists have long known that control mechanisms known collectively as “epigenetics” play a critical role in human development, but they did not know precisely how alterations in this extra layer of biochemical instructions in DNA contribute to development.
UCLA researchers at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research have used induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) to advance disease-in-a-dish modeling of a rare genetic disorder, Ataxia Telangiectasia. Their discovery shows positive effects of drugs that may lead to effective new treatments for the neurodegenerative disease. iPSC are made from patient skin cells rather than from embryos and can become any type of cells in the laboratory.
The human body contains trillions of cells, all derived from a single cell, or zygote, made by the fusion of an egg and a sperm. That single cell contains all the genetic information needed to develop into a human, and passes identical copies of that information to each new cell as it divides into the many diverse types of cells that make up a complex organism like a human being.
A key type of human brain cell developed in the laboratory grows seamlessly when transplanted into the brains of mice, UC San Francisco researchers have discovered, raising hope that these cells might one day be used to treat people with Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and possibly even Alzheimer’s disease, as well as and complications of spinal cord injury such as chronic pain and spasticity.
Epilepsy that does not respond to drugs can be halted in adult mice by transplanting a specific type of cell into the brain, UC San Francisco researchers have discovered, raising hope that a similar treatment might work in severe forms of human epilepsy.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have identified a gene that, when repressed in tumor cells, puts a halt to cell growth and a range of processes needed for tumors to enlarge and spread to distant sites. The researchers hope that this so-called “master regulator” gene may be the key to developing a new treatment for tumors resistant to current drugs.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison research group has converted skin cells from people and monkeys into a cell that can form a wide variety of nervous-system cells — without passing through the do-it-all stage called the induced pluripotent stem cell, or iPSC.
Research findings show human central nervous system stem cells foster myelin formation following HuCNS-SC transplantation.
Many diseases – obesity, Type 2 diabetes, muscular dystrophy – are associated with fat accumulation in muscle. In essence, fat replacement causes the muscles to weaken and degenerate. Scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have discovered the biological mechanism involved in this process, which could point the way to potential therapies.
Overall importance of microglia in various brain and spinal cord diseases surprises researchers, who find patient-specific stem cells can be turned into microglia, which could be very useful in future treatment options.
In a serendipitous discovery, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have found a way to turn bone marrow stem cells directly into brain cells.
Pluripotent stem cells can turn (differentiate) into any cell type in the body, such as nerve, muscle or bone, but inevitably some of these stem cells fail to differentiate and end up mixed in with their newly differentiated daughter cells. UCLA scientists have discovered a new agent that may be useful in strategies to kill off pluripotent stem cells from differentiated daughter cells.
For the first time, human embryonic stem cells have been transformed into nerve cells that helped mice regain the ability to learn and remember.
Declining levels of the protein BubR1 occur when both people and animals age, and contribute to cell senescence or deterioration, weight loss, muscle wasting and cataracts.
For nearly two years, Univ. of Michigan neurologist Eva Feldman, M.D., Ph.D. has led the nation’s first clinical trial of stem cell injections in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Now, a new approval from the FDA paves the way for U-M to become the second site in the trial, pending IRB approval.
Scientists have overcome a major impediment to the development of effective stem cell therapies by studying mice that lack CD47, a protein found on the surface of both healthy and cancer cells. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute discovered that cells obtained from the lungs of CD47-deficient mice, but not from ordinary mice that have the CD47 gene, multiplied in a culture dish and spontaneously converted into stem cells.
When it comes to delivering genes to living human tissue, the odds of success come down the molecule. The entire therapy — including the tools used to bring new genetic material into a cell — must have predictable effects.
Every day, millions of people with bipolar disorder take medicines to stabilize their moods. But just how these drugs work is still a mystery. Now, a new study of brain tissue helps reveal what might actually be happening. And further research using stem cells programmed to act like brain cells is already underway.
Deep inside your brain, a legion of stem cells lies ready to turn into new brain and nerve cells when you need them. New research shows the vital role of a type of internal “spring cleaning” that both clears out garbage inside the cells, and keeps them in their perpetual stem-cell state.
A new separation process that depends on an easily-distinguished physical difference in adhesive forces among cells could help expand production of stem cells generated through cell reprogramming.
For the first time, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have isolated adult stem cells from human intestinal tissue. The accomplishment provides a much-needed resource for scientists eager to uncover the true mechanisms of human stem cell biology.
Preparations are underway for the first known human trial to use embryonic-like stem cells collected from adult cells to grow bone.
Using the same strategy that a common virus employs to evade the human immune system, researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine have modified adult stem cells to increase their survival – with the goal of giving the cells time to exert their natural healing abilities.
In laboratory studies, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have found that stem cells from a patient’s own fat may have the potential to deliver new treatments directly into the brain after the surgical removal of a glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive form of brain tumor.
New hope for reversing the effects of spinal cord injury may be found in a combination of stem cell therapy and physical therapy according to new findings from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Columbia Engineering’s new “plug-and-play” method to assemble complex cell microenvironments is a scalable, highly precise way to fabricate tissues with any spatial organization or interest—like those found in the heart or skeleton or vasculature. The PNAS study reveals new ways to better mimic the enormous complexity of tissue development, regeneration, and disease.
The removal of a genetic roadblock could improve the efficiency of converting adult cells into stem cells by 10 to 30 times, report scientists from The Methodist Hospital Research Institute and two other institutions in the latest issue of Cell.
In a significant advance for harnessing the immune system to treat leukemias, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center for the first time have successfully infused large numbers of donor T-cells specific for a key anti-leukemic antigen to prolong survival in high-risk and relapsed leukemia patients after stem cell transplantation. Both the stem cells for transplant and the T-cells came from the same matched donors.
In research that could one day improve the success of stem cell transplants and chemotherapy, scientists have found that distinct niches exist in bone marrow to nurture different types of blood stem cells.
Researchers have now found stem cells inside the parasite that cause schistosomiasis, one of the most common parasitic infections in the world. These stem cells can regenerate worn-down organs, which may help explain how they can live for years or even decades inside their host.
In a study of mice, researchers at Johns Hopkins have identified a new molecular pathway involved in the growth of tiny air sacs called alveoli that are crucial for breathing. The scientists say their experiments may lead to the first successful treatments to regrow the air sacs in people who suffer from diseases such as emphysema in which the air sacs have been destroyed by years of smoking. The work may also suggest new therapy for premature infants born before their lungs are fully developed.
Researchers have identified a pivotal protein in a cellular transformation that makes a cancer cell more resistant to treatment and more capable of growing and spreading, making it an inviting new target for drug development.
Through a series of investigations in mice and humans, Johns Hopkins researchers have identified a protein that appears to be the target of both antidepressant drugs and electroconvulsive therapy. Results of their experiments explain how these therapies likely work to relieve depression by stimulating stem cells in the brain to grow and mature. In addition, the researchers say, these experiments raise the possibility of predicting individual people’s response to depression therapy, and fine-tuning treatment accordingly.
Research from Whitehead Institute shows that transcription at the active promoters of protein-coding genes commonly runs in opposite directions. This leads to coordinated production of both protein-coding messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs).
Scientists at the Monell Center have identified the location and certain genetic characteristics of taste stem cells on the tongue. The findings will facilitate techniques to grow and manipulate new functional taste cells for both clinical and research purposes.
Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston report the first generation of human induced pluripotent stem cells from patients with an uncommon form of diabetes, maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY). These cells offer a powerful resource for studying the role of genetic factors in the development of MODY and testing potential treatments.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing have received a four-year grant to determine whether exercise can shorten recovery time for patients who undergo high-dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation.
Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, whose clinical trial results in 2012 demonstrated that stem cell therapy reduces scarring and regenerates healthy tissue after a heart attack, now have found that the stem cell technique boosts production of existing adult heart cells (cardiomyocytes) and spurs recruitment of existing stem cells that mature into heart cells. The findings, from a laboratory animal study, are published in EMBO Molecular Medicine online.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that hard-to-reach, drug-resistant leukemia stem cells (LSCs) that overexpress multiple pro-survival protein forms are sensitive – and thus vulnerable – to a novel cancer stem cell-targeting drug currently under development.
A protein known as Sp2 is key to the proper creation of neurons from stem cells, according to researchers at North Carolina State University.
Researchers used induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from a young patient with Long QT syndrome (LQTS), a congenital heart disorder, to determine a course of treatment that helped manage the patient’s life-threatening arrhythmias.
Scientists at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio have for the first time demonstrated that baboon embryonic stem cells can be programmed to completely restore a severely damaged artery. These early results show promise for eventually developing stem cell therapies to restore human tissues or organs damaged by age or disease.
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