StemCellGateway.net

Published Date: Sun, 05 Sep 2010 00:00:00 EDT

Description: Biologists have discovered that a gene critical for programmed cell death is also important in the loss of adult stem cells, a finding that could help to improve the health and well-being of patients undergoing cancer treatment.

Published Date: Sat, 04 Sep 2010 14:00:00 EDT

Description: Scientists have devised a method for coaxing mouse embryonic stem cells into forming a highly specific motor neuron subtype. The research provides new insight into motor neuron differentiation and may prove useful for devising and testing future therapies for motor neuron diseases.

Published Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:00:00 EDT

Description: Researchers have identified unique metabolic properties that allow a specific type of stem cell in the body to survive and replicate in low-oxygen environments.

Published Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:00:00 EDT

Description: A research team has shown for the first time that a gene called Myc, which is traditionally thought of as a cancer-causing gene, may be far more important in the development and persistence of stem cells than was known before.

Published Date: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:00:00 EDT

Description: A long-held assumption about asymmetrical division of stem cells has cracked. Researchers report that the mitotic spindle does not act alone -- that cortical proteins help to position a cleavage furrow in the right location.

Published Date: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:00:00 EDT

Description: Female induced pluripotent stem cells, reprogrammed from human skin cells into cells that have the embryonic-like potential to become any cell in the body, retain an inactive X chromosome, stem cell researchers have found.

Published Date: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:00:00 EDT

Description: New research uncovers a case of mistaken identity that may have a significant impact on future breast cancer prevention and treatment strategies. The study suggests that despite their "stem cell-like" characteristics, most aggressive breast tumors are not derived from normal mammary gland stem cells.

Published Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EDT

Description: For the first time, researchers have identified and isolated adult mammary stem cells in mice. Long-term implications of this research may include the use of such cells to regenerate breast tissue, provide a better understanding of the role of adult stem cells in breast cancer development, and develop potential new targets for anti-cancer drugs.

Published Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EDT

Description: Researchers have tracked a cell-to-cell pathway that designates the future location of the ear's sensory organs in embryonic mice. The scientists succeeded in activating this signal more widely across the embronic tissue that forms the inner ear. Patches of sensory structures began growing in spots where they don't normally appear. The results suggest an avenue for further investigation in restoring hearing loss and correcting balance problems from nerve damage in the inner ear.

Published Date: Sat, 28 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EDT

Description: By creating diseased liver cells from a small sample of human skin, scientists have now shown that stem cells can be used to model a diverse range of inherited disorders. The researchers' findings will hopefully lead to new treatments for those suffering from liver diseases.

Published Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:00:00 EDT

Description: Production of new nerve cells in the human brain is linked to learning and memory, according to a new study. The research is the first to show such a link in humans. The findings provide clues about processes involved in age- and health-related memory loss and reveal potential cellular targets for drug therapy.

Published Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EDT

Description: Great excitement greeted the discovery a few years ago that certain cells from mice and humans could be reprogrammed to become inducible pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) as they hold promise for cell replacement therapy and modeling human disease. Two independent research groups have now shown that both possibilities are true for iPS cell-derived liver cells known as hepatocytes.

Published Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EDT

Description: When human umbilical cord blood cells were used to treat cultured rat brain cells deprived of oxygen, the cells appeared to protect astrocytes from cell death after stroke-like damage. Researchers found that cord blood cells stabilized the brain cell environment and aided astrocyte survival.

Published Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EDT

Description: Chemical engineers, materials scientists and biologists have devised a synthetic surface that includes no foreign animal material and allows stem cells to stay alive and continue reproducing themselves for at least three months. It's also the first synthetic material that allows single cells to form colonies of identical cells, which is necessary to identify cells with desired traits and has been difficult to achieve with existing materials.

Published Date: Sun, 22 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EDT

Description: Scientists have developed a new method of identifying drugs to treat children suffering from fatal cancers for which an effective treatment has not been found. Rather than developing a new drug from scratch, which is a complicated and time-consuming process, they tried a different approach: in the lab, they tested existing drugs on cancer stem cells from young patients with neuroblastoma, one of the common cancers of infants and children.

Published Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:00:00 EDT

Description: Researchers report the first successful use of cell-depleted lung as a natural growth matrix for generating new rat lung from embryonic stem cells.

Published Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:00:00 EDT

Description: Scientists have discovered at least one key reason why blood stem cells are susceptible to developing the genetic mutations that can lead to adult leukemia. Their finding also may explain, they say, why some other age-related hematological disorders develop.

Published Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 02:00:00 EDT

Description: Researchers have demonstrated that human neural stem cells can restore mobility in cases of chronic spinal cord injury, suggesting the prospect of treating a much broader population of patients.

Published Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EDT

Description: The genes that are responsible for maintaining each cell type form DNA loops that link control elements for these genes. The DNA loop structure is essential for regulating the activity of cell-type-specific genes and thus maintaining cell state. Problems with the loop structure can cause multiple syndromes and diseases, including Opitz-Kaveggia syndrome, Lujan syndrome, schizophrenia and Cornelia de Lange syndrome.

Published Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EDT

Description: Taking one type of cell and transforming it into another type is now possible. Cells taken from the thymus have been transformed into skin cells -- a discovery that may have important ramifications for the field of organ regeneration. The findings show that these stem cells change their genetic make-up according to their environment to contribute to the long-term functioning of the skin, even producing hair for up to a year after implantation.

Published Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 05:00:00 EDT

Description: Researchers have shown that a gene named Prox1 is a key player in normal development of a brain structure crucial for learning and memory and remains active throughout life, nurturing the cells vital for making new memories.

Published Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EDT

Description: One of the most common causes of disability in young adults is spinal cord injury. Currently, there is no proven reparative treatment. However, hope that neural stem cells might be of benefit to individuals with severe spinal cord injury has now been provided new research using a mouse model of this devastating condition.

Published Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EDT

Description: A unique "partnership" between two types of bone marrow stem cells could lead to advances in regenerative medicine.

Published Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:00:00 EDT

Description: Adult stem cells that are vital for airway repair in the lung but that persist in areas where pre-cancerous lesions are found are associated with a poor prognosis in patients who develop cancer, even those with early stage disease, researchers have found.

Published Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EDT

Description: Researchers have demonstrated that rationally "guided" human adult stem cells can effectively heal, repair and regenerate damaged heart tissue.

Published Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 05:00:00 EDT

Description: Having charted the occurrence of a common chemical change that takes place while stem cells decide their fates and progress from precursor to progeny, scientists have produced the first-ever epigenetic landscape map for tissue differentiation.

Published Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:00:00 EDT

Description: Researchers have successfully used human induced pluripotent stem cells to treat rodents afflicted with Parkinson's disease. The research validates a scalable protocol that can be used to manufacture the type of neurons needed to treat the disease and paves the way for the use of iPSC's in various biomedical applications.

Published Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:00:00 EDT

Description: When envisioning cell therapy for cardiovascular disease, a team of scientists is focusing on cells that nourish blood vessels, rather than on rare stem cells. In experiments with mice, CD31 positive cells from the blood or bone marrow can effectively treat hindlimb ischemia -- a model of peripheral artery disease. This approach has the potential to be safer and less arduous than experimental therapies involving the isolation of stem cells from bone marrow.

Published Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:00:00 EDT

Description: A protein known to be involved in a rare hereditary cancer syndrome may have a role in the regulation of liver stem cells and the development of liver cancer. In a new study, a research team describes finding that the protein called merlin, encoded by the NF2 gene, controls the activity of adult stem cells that give rise to the two major types of liver cells.

Published Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EDT

Description: Researchers have discovered the precise source of hematopoietic stem cell maintenance and regulation within the bone marrow. In a new study, they report that the HSCs retain their unique features of multipotency and self-renewal in response to signals from another stem cell population, the mesenchymal stem cells, which create a supportive niche for the HSCs.

Published Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:00:00 EDT

Description: Researchers have uncovered a key step in the creation of new red blood cells in an animal study. They found that a tiny fragment of ribonucleic acid (RNA), a chemical cousin of DNA, prompts stem cells to mature into red blood cells. The researchers also created an artificial RNA inhibitor to block this process.

Published Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EDT

Description: Physician-researchers have demonstrated that a lethal skin disease can be successfully treated with stem cell therapy.

Published Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EDT

Description: Researchers are reporting new study results they say provide further evidence of the therapeutic potential of stem cells derived from bone marrow for patients suffering from acute lung injury, one of the most common causes of respiratory failure in intensive care units.

Published Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EDT

Description: Engineers and physicians have built a scaffold that supports the growth and integration of stem cell-derived cardiac muscle cells. The scaffold supports the growth of cardiac cells in the lab and encourages blood vessel growth in living animals.

Published Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EDT

Description: Researchers have modified T cell receptors, the antenna-like structures of T cells, to make them more potent against cancer. This modification is the precondition for the immune system to destroy cancer cells. The researchers developed a mouse with a whole repertoire of human T cell receptors with the aim of utilizing them in the future for targeted immunotherapy in patients.

Published Date: Sun, 08 Aug 2010 14:00:00 EDT

Description: Researchers in Japan have unraveled the mystery of why human embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells undergo programmed cell death (apoptosis) when cultured in isolation. By unlocking the potential of cell therapy techniques, the discovery promises new hope to sufferers of debilitating degenerative diseases.

Published Date: Sat, 07 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EDT

Description: 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.

Published Date: Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:00:00 EDT

Description: Scientists have taken a big step toward being able to confer a regenerative capacity on mammalian muscle cells; they accomplished this feat in experiments with laboratory mice in which they blocked the expression of just two tumor-suppressing proteins. The finding may move us closer to future regenerative therapies in humans -- surprisingly, by sending us shimmying back down the evolutionary tree.

Published Date: Fri, 06 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EDT

Description: In heart disease, cardiac muscle gradually dies off and, with little or no way to regenerate those cells, that can ultimately lead the heart to fail. But scientists might have found a way to fix those losses. They've devised a three-ingredient molecular cocktail that transforms fibroblasts -- structural cells that the heart is chock full of -- directly into beating heart cells.

Published Date: Fri, 06 Aug 2010 02:00:00 EDT

Description: No healthy teeth will form without this gene: if during tooth formation (odontogenesis) the so-called Jagged2 gene is inactivated, and hence the Notch signaling pathway interrupted, tooth crowns will be malformed and enamel will be lacking. This signaling pathway is involved in the formation of all tissues and organs.

Published Date: Thu, 05 Aug 2010 17:00:00 EDT

Description: Human embryonic stem cells and adult cells reprogrammed to an embryonic stem cell-like state -- so-called induced pluripotent stem or iPS cells -- exhibit very few differences in their gene expression signatures and are nearly indistinguishable in their chromatin state, according to researchers. Contrary to some recent research, the current findings rekindling hopes that, under the proper circumstances, iPS cells may hold the clinical promise ascribed to them earlier.

Published Date: Thu, 05 Aug 2010 05:00:00 EDT

Description: Researchers in Australia have made a discovery that has upended scientists' understanding of programmed cell death and its role in tumor formation. The research team's discovery has implications for the understanding of how cancers develop and will inform the ongoing development of a new class of anti-cancer drugs called BH3 mimetics.

Published Date: Thu, 05 Aug 2010 02:00:00 EDT

Description: One key to fighting diseases such as leukemia and anemia is gaining an understanding of the genes and molecules that control the function of hematopoietic -- or blood -- stem cells, which provide the body with a constant supply of red and white blood cells and platelets. Biologists have taken a large step toward that end, with the discovery of a novel group of molecules that are found in high concentrations within hematopoietic stem cells and appear to regulate their production.

Published Date: Wed, 04 Aug 2010 23:00:00 EDT

Description: Researchers have identified a new mechanism that controls the number of hematopoietic stem cells -- cells that give rise to all blood and immune system cells. The team identified a tiny RNA molecule that increases the number of these blood stem cells, an advance that may improve treatment of blood system cancers.

Published Date: Tue, 03 Aug 2010 23:00:00 EDT

Description: Researchers have challenged decades of accepted wisdom about bone marrow transplantation with a new study showing that mice receiving purified blood stem cells are less prone to complications than mice receiving stem cells plus purified T cells.

Published Date: Mon, 02 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EDT

Description: Researchers have discovered a new fat cell that may inhibit the ability to dispose of fat and cause inflammation.

Published Date: Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:00:00 EDT

Description: Scientists have developed a material for bone grafts that could one day replace the 'gold standard' natural bone implants. A new study shows how particles of a ceramic called calcium phosphate have the ability to stimulate promising bone regrowth by attracting stem cells and "growth factors" to promote healing and the integration of the grafted tissue.

Published Date: Mon, 02 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EDT

Description: Within 24 hours of culturing adult human stem cells on a new type of matrix, researchers were able to make predictions about how the cells would differentiate, or what type of tissue they would become.