Bone Marrow News and Research

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Bone Marrow is the soft, sponge-like tissue in the center of most bones. It produces white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.

Scientists have developed a new technology capable of improving survival outcomes after bone marrow transplantation

The study was published in the September issue of the prestigious medical journal, British Journal of Hematology. The technology involves the rational design and application of tyrosine kinase inhibitors for the treatment of leukemia, lymphoma, and graft versus host disease.

8 Oct 2004

Transatlantic study to help damaged hearts repair themselves

A $6 million, five-year grant from the Parisian Fondation Leduq has set up a transatlantic effort to study ways to help damaged hearts repair themselves, using stem cells from bone marrow, bloodstream, and adult heart tissue.

6 Oct 2004

Compound derived from fruit and vegetables could be used to improve the effects of an established cancer drug

The drug, mitomycin C (MMC), is a well-known anticancer treatment used mainly against solid tumours in the bladder and lower bowel. It is activated by enzymes naturally found in the human body, but its use is limited by severe side effects at higher doses.

5 Oct 2004

Linda Buck has been named winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine

Linda Buck, Ph.D., a member of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center's Basic Sciences Division, has been named winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

5 Oct 2004

Reducing eosinophilic airway inflammation in severe asthma

Eosinophils are a type of white blood cell that constitute from 1 to 3 percent of the total white cell count. When foreign substances or infectious cells enter the body, lymphocytes and neutrophils attract eosinophils which release toxic substances that can destroy abnormal cells. Eosinophils function in allergic responses and in helping resist some infections.

4 Oct 2004

Arsenic trioxide - invented as a treatment for a rare type of leukaemia

Arsenic trioxide – a highly poisonous substance best known as an effective weed killer or pesticide and notorious for being a favourite ‘weapon’ of choice in murder mystery novels, is being re-invented as a treatment for a rare type of leukaemia.

28 Sep 2004

New link in the growth of Ewing’s sarcoma

To develop new therapeutic approaches to cancer, it is essential to understand the long and extremely complex process that underlies it, in other words the various stages of cancer development from the initial mutation to the tumor.

23 Sep 2004

Experimental drug PKC412 may be the key to treating myeloproliferative disease

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital have prolonged the lives of mice with a rare blood disorder by using an experimental drug that blocks signals promoting runaway growth of blood cells.

21 Sep 2004

Stress response proteins offer a promising target for a novel drug guidance system

Their study, published in the September issue of the journal Cancer Cell, demonstrates how researchers can find protein tags that are unique to cancer cells and then tweak a drug delivery system to zero in on those tags and destroy the cells.

21 Sep 2004

Vanilla may become a drug to treat sickle cell disease

In addition to its popular role in flavoring ice cream, fudge and cake frosting, vanilla may have a future use as a medicine. Recent laboratory research has strengthened the possibility that a form of vanilla may become a drug to treat sickle cell disease.

20 Sep 2004

Link between eosinophils and asthma

Mayo Clinic researchers have used a comparative genomic strategy to demonstrate a causative link between eosinophils, a rare type of white blood cell, and asthma.

18 Sep 2004

Potential stem cells treatment for retinitis pigmentosa and other retinal degenerations

A team of researchers from The Scripps Research Institute was able to preserve visual function in mice that were genetically predisposed to developing a profound degenerative disease that destroys their retinas.

16 Sep 2004

Stem cell science and orthopedic surgery may reduce failure rate in hip replacements

By combining stem cell science with orthopedic surgery, a team of researchers at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute aims to reduce the 10 per cent failure rate in hip replacements and make repeat replacements and other joint repairs obsolete within 10-15 years.

16 Sep 2004

Americans happy to donate money but not blood and tissue

When asked, most Americans will say that donating to worthy causes is a good thing. And many will put their time and money where their mouths are and volunteer or pony up or both. Except when it comes to donating blood and tissue.

10 Sep 2004

New treatment for T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

IL-7, a hormone-like protein involved in cell-cell interaction, has been associated with increased survival and expansion of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL).

9 Sep 2004

New IBM technology could bring the promise of personalized medicine one step closer

Using a basic computer language, the researchers created a "smart" DNA stream that contains a patient's entire medical record

8 Sep 2004

Bone marrow produces cells that permanently heal wounds

Bone marrow produces cells that not only help fight infection but also permanently heal wounds, according to research at the University of Washington. Previously, researchers had not known that bone marrow contributed to the development of new skin in wounds.

5 Sep 2004

Researchers accurately pinpoint the types of lymphoma, Hodgkins or non-Hodgkins

“There are many types and subtypes of lymphoma, some of which are easy to detect, but many that are very difficult to identify,” says Antonio Giordano, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Sbarro Institute at Temple and one of the study’s principal investigators.

1 Sep 2004

Study suggests intramyocardial injection of cells from bone marrow might be an alternative for heart transplantation

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality around the world and patients with end-stage ischemic heart failure carry the highest morbid-mortality rate.

30 Aug 2004

Converting cells into heart muscle

This plasticity concept – the ability of bone marrow cell to transdifferentiate into heart muscle cell – is supported by experimental and clinical data. Another possibility is to replace the missing function by causing transdifferentiation of existing cells. Transdifferentiation means converting one sort of cell, e.g. fibroblast, into another, e.g. muscle cell.