Human embryonic stem cell-based therapies have the potential to help treat stroke disease. – Neural cells derived from human embryonic stem cells helped repair stroke-related damage in the brains of rats and led to improvements in their physical abilities, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
An international team of scientists has isolated pancreatic stem cells in adult mice, a breakthrough that could lead to treatment for juvenile or Type 1 diabetes. – Just as many scientists had given up the search, researchers have discovered that the pancreas does indeed harbor stem cells with the capacity to generate new insulin-producing beta cells. If the finding made in adult mice holds for humans, the newfound progenitor cells will represent “an obvious target for therapeutic regeneration of beta cells in diabetes,” the researchers report in the Jan. 25 issue of Cell, a publication of Cell Press.
Dr. Rita Perlingeiro’s research team has prompted the growth of healthy and functioning muscle cells in mice afflicted with a human model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. This represents the first time transplanted embryonic stem cells have been shown to restore function to defective muscles in an MD model. – Using embryonic stem cells from mice, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have prompted the growth of healthy – and more importantly, functioning – muscle cells in mice afflicted with a human model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The study represents the first time transplanted embryonic stem cells have been shown to restore function to defective muscles in a model of muscular dystrophy.
UCI study identifies the specific role for gene linked to cortical development, cerebral cortex points to potential stem cell treatments. – University of California, Irvine researchers have identified a gene that is specifically responsible for generating the cerebral cortex, a finding that could lead to stem cell therapies to treat brain injuries and diseases such as stroke and Alzheimer’s.
A new study of four-year-old twin girls has identified a stem cell that is the root cause of childhood cancer – Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). – A breakthrough study of identical twins has for the first time confirmed the existence of cancer stem cells that cause the most common form of childhood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) ? backing evidence that this childhood cancer starts in the womb. The research should lead to less aggressive treatment for childhood ALL and provides the hope of new, more effective drugs.
Activating a protein found on some immune cells seems to halt the cells? typical job of spewing out substances that launch allergic reactions, a study by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests. – Johns Hopkins researchers suggests in a study that activating a protein found on some immune cells seems to halt the cells’ typical job of spewing out substances that launch allergic reactions.
Combining a medication currently used to treat multiple sclerosis with an antibiotic may slow the progress of the disease in multiple sclerosis patients.
– A preliminary study suggests that combining a medication currently used to treat multiple sclerosis with an antibiotic may slow the progress of the disease, according to an article posted online today that will appear in the February 2008 print issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Researchers have discovered abnormal cells in the early stem cell population in Chronic myeloid leukemia CML patients.
– Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute researchers have opened a new window into the roots of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). “We are looking under the surface of CML to understand better where the cancer is coming from. We have discovered abnormal cells in the early stem cell population in some CML patients, which don’t belong to the CML clone. These are abnormal cells that are not part of the CML clone,” said Thomas Bumm, M.D., OHSU Cancer Institute member.
Using a new type of stem cells made from ordinary skin cells, US researchers said they treated mice with sickle cell anemia.
– MIT researchers have successfully treated mice with sickle-cell anemia in a process that begins by directly reprogramming the mice’s own cells to an embryonic-stem-cell-like state, without the use of eggs.
Researchers implant embryonic cells into damaged hearts and prevent life-threatening heart arrhythmias.
– When researchers at Cornell, the University of Bonn and the University of Pittsburgh transplanted living embryonic heart cells into cardiac tissue of mice that had suffered heart attacks, the mice became resistant to cardiac arrhythmias, thereby avoiding one of the most dangerous and fatal consequences of heart attacks.
