When peripheral nerves are damaged and their vital synaptic paths are disrupted, they have the ability to regenerate and reestablish lost connections. Using zebrafish, which are transparent at larval stages, the researchers identified key components that allows the nervous system to heal itself and literally obtain a whole new window into how axons regenerate.
Inhibiting a family of enzymes inside hair follicles that are suspended in a resting state restores hair growth, a new study from researchers at Columbia University Medical Center has found.
A discovery made by investigators from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Boston University School of Medicine may help lead to the development of a cell-based regenerative therapy which could be used to restore thyroid function in cancer patients or children born with congenital hypothyroidism.
When a Lake Malawi cichlid loses a tooth, a new one drops neatly into place as a replacement. Why can't humans similarly regrow teeth lost to injury or disease?
he whimsically named sonic hedgehog gene, best known for controlling embryonic development, also maintains the normal physiological state and repair process of an adult healthy lung, if damaged.
Driven by the need to develop more effective therapies requiring less recovery time for common joint conditions such as osteoarthritis, an international team including NIBIB-funded researchers has developed an integrated two-part scaffold for implantation into damaged joints -- with cartilage scaffold made from silk, and bone scaffold made from ceramics. This combination of materials allows stem cells to successfully populate the graft and differentiate into cartilage and bone cells. The cells fill the damaged areas to reconstitute the original structure of the joint, after which the scaffold biodegrades, leaving the smooth surface required for a pain-free, functioning interface.
In a small pilot study, researchers from North Carolina State University have demonstrated a rapid, simple way to generate large numbers of lung stem cells for use in disease treatment.
UCSF researchers have developed a technique to build tiny models of human tissues using a process that turns human cells into a biological equivalent of LEGO bricks. These mini-tissues in a dish can be used to study how particular structural features of tissue affect normal growth or go awry in cancer.
The mechanisms that allow the liver to repair and regenerate itself have long been a matter of debate. Now researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered a population of liver cells that are better at regenerating liver tissue than ordinary liver cells, or hepatocytes. The study is the first to identify these so-called “hybrid hepatocytes,” and show that they are able to regenerate liver tissue without giving rise to cancer.
Researchers at Rush University Medical Center are exploring a new therapy using stem cells to treat spinal cord injuries within the first 14 to 30 days of injury. Rush is only the second center in the country currently studying this new approach.
Wichita State University's Li Yao is taking a special approach to the study of spinal cord injuries through research that uses an electrical signal to repair tissue damage.
Stem cells are key for the continual renewal of tissues in our bodies. As such, manipulating stem cells also holds much promise for biomedicine if their regenerative capacity can be harnessed. Researchers are making headway in this area by studying stem cells in their natural environment in fruitflies.
Other topics include repairing injured nerves, busted heart attack treatment, decorative brain molecules, and more...
UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists collaborating with University of Michigan researchers have found a previously unidentified mechanism that helps explain why stem cells undergo self-renewing divisions but their offspring do not.
A new study co-led by Hsin-Hsiung Tai, professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Kentucky, suggests that a key prostaglandin (PG) metabolic enzyme shows promise as a drug target to help tissue regeneration and repair, particularly after bone marrow transplantation and tissue injuries.
A joint investigation including UT Southwestern Medical Center has found a molecule that may play a significant role in accelerating cell recovery following bone marrow transplants, liver disease, and colon disease.
Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center report progress in their goal to make use of the more than 2,600 kidneys that are donated each year, but must be discarded due to abnormalities and other factors. The scientists aim to “recycle” these organs to engineer tailor-made replacement kidneys for patients.
Salk Institute scientists discover new type of stem cell that could potentially generate mature, functional tissues
Video of engineered mini hearts and livers being developed for a "Body on a Chip" project has been released.
The heart tissue of mammals has limited capacity to regenerate after an injury such as a heart attack, in part due to the inability to reactivate a cardiac muscle cell and proliferation program. A team has now shown that a subset of microRNAs is important for cardiomyocyte cell proliferation during development and is sufficient to induce proliferation in cardiomyocytes in the adult heart.
A new technique to create tissue-engineered bladders has been shown to decrease scarring and significantly increase tissue growth. The bladders are produced using scaffolds coated with anti-inflammatory peptides. Tissue-engineered organs such as supplemental bladders, small arteries, skin grafts, cartilage, and even a full trachea have been implanted in patients, but the procedures are still experimental, very costly, and often fail.
Researchers have shown that neonatal mouse hearts have varying regenerative capacities depending upon the severity of injury. Approaches to extend this regenerative capacity in a mammalian model, from the neonatal period to the juvenile or adult period, could help identify new treatment options for humans.
A stem cell capable of regenerating both bone and cartilage has been identified in bone marrow of mice.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have found that a growth factor can regenerate damaged peripheral nerves without causing the growth of new blood vessels -- making it a unique candidate to treat nerve damage in areas of the body where the proliferation of blood vessels would be a drawback.
Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute have found that injections of cardiac stem cells might help reverse heart damage caused by Duchenne muscular dystrophy, potentially resulting in a longer life expectancy for patients with the chronic muscle-wasting disease.
By transforming human scar cells into blood vessel cells, scientists may have discovered a new way to repair damaged tissue. The method, described in an upcoming issue of Circulation (early online), appeared to improve blood flow, oxygenation, and nutrition to areas in need.
Researchers regenerate and heal mouse hearts by using the molecular machinery the animals had all along.
New and more effective treatments for diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) and venous leg ulcers (VLUs) are sorely needed. One of the today’s most promising approaches harnesses regenerative medicine, specifically cell therapy. Israel-based Macrocure Ltd.’s lead product, CureXcell™, harnesses living white blood cells, including macrophages, neutrophils and lymphocytes, that are crucial to initiating, promoting and completing the process of cellular regeneration and wound healing for both of these conditions.
Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a way to use sound to create cellular scaffolding for tissue engineering, a unique approach that could help overcome one of regenerative medicine’s significant obstacles.
Researchers used human iPSC stem cells to grow brand new nerves in a rat model of spinal cord injury. The neurons grew tens of thousands of axons that extended the entire length of the spinal cord. The iPSCs were made using the skin cells of an 86 year old male, demonstrating that even in an individual of advanced age, the ability of the cells to be turned into a different cell type (pluripotency) remained.
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