Stem Cells News and Research

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Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body during early life and growth. In addition, in many tissues they serve as a sort of internal repair system, dividing essentially without limit to replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still alive. When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential either to remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell.

Mapping of prostate cancer genes opens the door to new treatments

Genetic changes during the initiation and progression of prostate cancer have eluded scientists to date. Now for the first time researchers have identified a specific gene expression profile of prostate cancer stem cells, with important implications for future treatments.

19 May 2008

Australian scientists use gene technology to improve IVF treatment

Research by a team of Australian scientists promises to improve the fertility treatment in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

15 May 2008

Regenerative medicine offers hope in spinal cord injury

Spinal cord injury (SCI) can be a catastrophic event for the individual. Traditionally, such injuries were viewed as permanent, irreversible neurological dysfunction, but over time research has shown some neuroplastic capability of the injured adult mammalian spinal cord. However, spontaneous functional recovery post-SCI is very modest.

14 May 2008

Arsenic-based agent shown to help eradicate leukemia-initiating cells

In both leukemia and solid tumors, there exists among the multitude of warrior cancer cells a small subgroup that work undercover, patiently lying in wait to launch their attacks. Known as either cancer initiating cells (CICs) or leukemia initiating cells (LICs), these stealth populations are impervious to conventional chemotherapy and undaunted by targeted cancer therapies. When a leukemia patient relapses following a period of remission, it is the LICs that bear responsibility for the disease's reemergence.

12 May 2008

How embryonic stem cells develop into tissue-specific cells demonstrated by researchers

While it has long been known that embryonic stem cells have the ability to develop into any kind of tissue-specific cells, the exact mechanism as to how this occurs has heretofore not been demonstrated.

12 May 2008

Molecular pathway in muscle helps explain effectiveness of diabetes interventions

Scientists at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), demonstrate for the first time in a mouse model that skeletal muscle cells cultured in a low-calorie environment refrain from differentiating, an energy-demanding process by which cells mature and specialize.

12 May 2008

Role of genetic components of dendritic cells could lead to more effective drugs

For the first time, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have identified genetic components of dendritic cells that are key to asthma and allergy-related immune response malfunction. Targeting these elements could result in more effective drugs to treat allergic disorders and asthma, according to a study reported in the May edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

7 May 2008

Adult human stem cells shown not to pose a cancer risk when implanted into different organs

A new study by UC Davis researchers provides evidence that methods using human bone marrow-derived stem cells to deliver gene therapy to cure diseases of the blood, bone marrow and certain types of cancer do not cause the development of tumors or leukemia.

6 May 2008

Test of maturity for stem cells

Stem cells can differentiate into 220 different types of body cell. The development of these cells can now be systematically observed and investigated with the aid of two new machines that imitate the conditions in the human body with unprecedented accuracy.

6 May 2008

Geron Corporation awarded UK grant funding for human embryonic stem cell research

Geron Corporation announced today two grant awards to the University of Edinburgh from the UK Stem Cell Foundation, with funding from the Medical Research Council and Scottish Enterprise.

6 May 2008

New study raises questions about prostate cancer therapies targeting insulin-like growth factor receptor

Therapies under development to treat prostate cancer by inhibiting the ability of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) to activate its target receptor could have unexpected results especially if a major tumor suppressor gene - p53 - is already compromised, according to new research by investigators at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

1 May 2008

Scientists produce stem cells from ordinary mouse skin cells

Researchers in the United States say they have produced a stem cell made from ordinary mouse skin cells which they have coaxed into becoming three different types of heart and blood cells in mice.

1 May 2008

New drug added to chemo kills off residual breast cancer stem cells

New research says chemotherapy often fails to totally eliminate breast cancer because it does not knock out breast cancer stem cells.

30 Apr 2008

New model for embryonic limb development

A study led by a researcher at the University of Southern California has found a new model to explain how signals between cells in the embryo control limb development.

30 Apr 2008

Researchers create heart and blood cells from reprogrammed skin cells

Stem cell researchers at UCLA were able to grow functioning cardiac cells using mouse skin cells that had been reprogrammed into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells.

30 Apr 2008

Mothers and offspring can share cells throughout life - with positive and negative effects

Cutting the umbilical cord doesn't necessarily sever the physical link between mother and child. Many cells pass back and forth between the mother and fetus during pregnancy and can be detected in the tissues and organs of both even decades later. This mixing of cells from two genetically distinct individuals is called microchimerism. The phenomenon is the focus of an increasing number of scientists who wonder what role these cells play in the body.

30 Apr 2008

Getting to the roots of breast cancer

The lesson learned in eradicating dandelions from your yard could apply in treating breast cancer as well, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in a report that appears online today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

29 Apr 2008

Scientists find distinct kind of stem cells in the pituitary gland

A team of researchers led by scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have for the first time identified stem cells that allow the pituitary glands of mice to grow even after birth.

28 Apr 2008

Tissue-specific blood stem cell line established from embryonic stem cells

A research team at the Umea Center for Molecular Medicine (UCMM) in Sweden, led by Professor Leif Carlsson, has managed to specifically establish and isolate the tissue-specific stem cell that produces blood cells (blood stem cell) by using genetically modified embryonic stem cells.

28 Apr 2008

Breakthrough in stem cell research

Dutch researchers at University Medical Center Utrecht and the Hubrecht Institute have succeeded in growing large numbers of stem cells from adult human hearts into new heart muscle cells.

23 Apr 2008