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One of the characteristics of embryonic stem cells is their ability to form unusual tumors called teratomas. These tumors, which contain a mixture of cells from a variety of tissues and organs of the body, are typically benign. But they present a major obstacle to the development of human embryonic stem cell therapies that seek to treat a variety of human ailments such as Parkinson's, diabetes, genetic blood disorders and spinal cord injuries.
A new study from researchers in Ottawa and Toronto suggests that a commonly used type of bone marrow stem cell may be able to help treat sepsis, a deadly condition that can occur when an infection spreads throughout the body. The study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, shows that these cells can triple survival rates in an experimental model of sepsis.
Are stem cells ready for prime time?
Most of the time, the body's blood-forming (hematopoietic) stem cells remain dormant, with just a few producing blood cells and maintaining a balance among the different types.
The Motor Neurone Disease Association is funding its first ever stem cell research programme to help unlock the secrets of this fatal, neurological condition.
Scientists may be one step closer to being able to generate any type of cells and tissues from a patient's own cells. In a study that will appear in the journal Nature and is receiving early online release, investigators from the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Regenerative Medicine (MGH-CRM) and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI), describe finding that an important cluster of genes is inactivated in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) that do not have the full development potential of embryonic stem cells. Generated from adult cells, iPSCs have many characteristics of embryonic stem cells but also have had significant limitations.
A study published in the current issue of Cell Transplantation (19:1) has found that using the FDA-approved contrast agent Indocyanine Green (ICG) to label human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hESC-CMs) substantially improved efforts to optically track stem cells after transplanting them into heart tissues.
Scientists seeking new ways to fight maladies ranging from arthritis and osteoporosis to broken bones that won't heal have cleared a formidable hurdle, pinpointing and controlling a key molecular player to keep stem cells in a sort of extended infancy. It's a step that makes treatment with the cells in the future more likely for patients.
University of California, Berkeley, biologists have found a signal that keeps stem cells alive in the adult brain, providing a focus for scientists looking for ways to re-grow or re-seed stem cells in the brain to allow injured areas to repair themselves.
Researchers at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, have discovered a key to embryonic stem (ES) cell rejuvenation in a gene—Zscan4—as reported in the March 24, 2010, online issue of Nature. This breakthrough finding could have major implications for aging research, stem cell biology, regenerative medicine and cancer biology.