Scar News and Research

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New strategy to reduce or eliminate scars on the skin

Whether from surgery or battle wounds, ugly scars can affect body and mind. Now a new research report appearing online in the FASEB Journal offers a new strategy to reduce or eliminate scars on the skin.

7 Jul 2012

New class of injectable materials can stimulate tissue regeneration

The University of Nottingham has begun the search for a new class of injectable materials that will stimulate stem cells to regenerate damaged tissue in degenerative and age related disorders of the bone, muscle and heart.

6 Jul 2012

First clinical trial to test cardiac drug regimen for DMD

The first landmark randomized clinical trial for a cardiac drug regimen in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is testing whether earlier treatment can stop or slow down heart damage that usually kills people with the disease.

27 Jun 2012

NIH awards Sirnaomics SBIR grant for developing STP705 siRNA wound healing product

Sirnaomics, Inc. announced today that the company has been awarded another NIH SBIR grant for developing its small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapeutic product STP705 to improve skin wound healing with minimized scar formation.

25 Jun 2012

Tinkering with p190RhoGAP molecule shapes development of cardiac stem cells

Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that a single protein molecule may hold the key to turning cardiac stem cells into blood vessels or muscle tissue, a finding that may lead to better ways to treat heart attack patients.

21 Jun 2012

Alpha-myosin triggers development of autoimmunity after heart attack

After people with type 1 diabetes have a heart attack, their long-term chance of suffering even more heart damage skyrockets. But the reason has long puzzled scientists. Now researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center have identified the misstep that sparks this runaway chronic damage and a promising way to block it.

14 Jun 2012

Targeting stem cells might be more effective in treating vascular disease

One of the top suspects behind killer vascular diseases is the victim of mistaken identity, according to researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, who used genetic tracing to help hunt down the real culprit.

7 Jun 2012

New microscopy technique can improve understanding of human tissues, biomaterials

Research from North Carolina State University demonstrates that a relatively new microscopy technique can be used to improve our understanding of human tissues and other biomedical materials. The study focused specifically on eye tissues, which are damaged by scarring in diabetic patients.

7 Jun 2012

Positive results from Auxilium’s XIAFLEX phase III studies on Peyronie's disease

Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty biopharmaceutical company, today announced positive top-line results from its IMPRESS (The Investigation for Maximal Peyronie's Reduction Efficacy and Safety Studies) trials, the phase III studies that assessed XIAFLEX (collagenase clostridium histolyticum or CCH), a novel, in-office, first-in-class biologic therapy for the potential treatment of Peyronie's disease (PD).

4 Jun 2012

Hip arthroplasty pseudotumors ‘cause for great concern’

Pseudotumors may be 10 times more common in patients after metal-on-metal hip resurfacing and total hip replacement than thought, suggest Dutch researchers.

1 Jun 2012

New technique promotes dramatic increase in cardiac function

LoneStar Heart Inc., today announced the advancement of a new therapeutic strategy aimed at genetic reprogramming of cardiac fibroblasts into functioning heart muscle cells to treat damage following a heart attack and other forms of heart disease.

30 May 2012

Safety of breast implants

Following the recent scandal, described in May 2012 by the BBC as the “PIP breast implant scandal”, (1) many women may have been put off having breast implants. But how safe exactly is breast enlargement? And how do the different methods compare?

29 May 2012

Single-port laparoscopy bimanual robot abdominal surgery

Millions of Europeans undergo abdominal surgery each year to treat a range of different disorders, from cancer and heart disease to obesity. EU-funded researchers are developing innovative micro-robotics and micro-system technologies to make such surgeries less complicated, invasive and costly.

25 May 2012

Scientists show positive results with human MSCs in animal models of MS

The Myelin Repair Foundation (MRF) today announced the results of a new peer-reviewed research study published in Nature Neuroscience that demonstrates functional improvement in immune response modulation and myelin repair with factors derived from mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) treatment in animal models of multiple sclerosis.

21 May 2012

Avita commences enrollment in ReCell study for hypertrophic dyspigmented scars

Avita Medical Ltd.,the regenerative medicine company, today announced that it has commenced enrolment in the US FDA-approved feasibility study for the use of ReCell Spray-On-Skin in the treatment of hypertrophic dyspigmented scars.

16 May 2012

Research reveals possible strategy to reverse fibrosis in liver and other organs

An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, report that significant numbers of myofibroblasts - cells that produce the fibrous scarring in chronic liver injury - revert to an inactive phenotype as the liver heals. The discovery in mouse models could ultimately help lead to new human therapies for reversing fibrosis in the liver, and in other organs like the lungs and kidneys.

8 May 2012

Kidney donated two weeks after transplant

For the first time, a kidney that had been donated to a patient in need was removed and implanted into a new patient, the third individual to have the organ, after it failed in the first transplant recipient. Ray Fearing, a 27-year-old Arlington Heights resident received the organ from his sister, Cera, after a long battle with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), a disease in which scar tissue develops on the part of the kidney that filters waste out of the blood, ultimately causing kidney failure.

26 Apr 2012

Kids who are abused or bullied may age faster

The study finds that violence-related stress in children affects telomeres - special DNA sequences found at the tips of chromosomes. Telomeres, which prevent DNA from unravelling, get shorter each time cells divide, which limits the number of times cells can divide. Shorter telomeres have been linked to poorer survival and chronic diseases. Previous research has shown that smoking, obesity, mental-health disorders and stress may accelerate the process of telomere loss. This suggests that telomere length may reflect a person's biological age as well as their chronological age.

25 Apr 2012

Thousands of women in UK undergo genital mutilation each year: Report

Reports suggest that nearly 100,000 women in Britain have undergone female genital mutilations. Even medics in the UK are offering to carry out the illegal procedure on girls as young as 10.

23 Apr 2012

New data from descriptive sub-analysis of patients with compensated liver cirrhosis

New data from a descriptive sub-analysis of patients with compensated liver cirrhosis show that up to 43 percent of genotype-1a (GT1a) and up to 71 percent of GT1b hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients achieved sustained viral response (SVR12). SVR12 has been highly correlated with SVR24, which is a recognized indicator of viral cure.

20 Apr 2012