Feature Channels: Stem Cells

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Findings Shed Light on the Development of Blood Cancers

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Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) transplantation reduced opioid tolerance and opioid-induced hyperalgesia caused by daily morphine injections in rats, according to new research.

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Scientists at the University of Michigan Health System have coaxed stem cells to grow the first three-dimensional mini lungs. The 3D structures mimic the complexity of human lungs and may serve as a discovery tool for lung diseases or new therapies.

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A research team at UC San Francisco has discovered an RNA molecule called Pnky that can be manipulated to increase the production of neurons from neural stem cells.

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Researchers at Texas A&M AgriLife Research have developed a new technology to determine sensitivity or resistance to rabies virus.

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Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a gene variant that may be used to predict people most likely to respond to an investigational therapy under development for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The study, published March 12 in Cell Stem Cell, is based on experiments with cultured neurons derived from adult stem cells.

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Scientists are eager to make use of stem cells’ extraordinary power to transform into nearly any kind of cell, but that ability also is cause for concern in cancer treatment. A new study shows stem cells are found even in low-grade tumors, where they can resist treatment.

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins have successfully corrected a genetic error in stem cells from patients with sickle cell disease, and then used those cells to grow mature red blood cells, they report. The study represents an important step toward more effectively treating certain patients with sickle cell disease who need frequent blood transfusions and currently have few options.

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A University at Buffalo researcher has discovered a way to keep remyelination going, using a drug that’s already on the market.

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A protein that helps embryonic stem cells retain their identity also promotes DNA repair. The findings raise the possibility that the protein, Sall4, performs a similar role in cancer cells, helping them survive chemotherapy.

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A new study led by researchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and the University of California (UC), San Diego School of Medicine shows that certain stem cell culture methods are associated with increased DNA mutations.

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A new study analyzed stem cell funding programs in four states and found that in both California and Connecticut, state programs have contributed to an increase in the share of publications in the field produced in these states.

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Stem cell transplants may be more effective than the drug mitoxantrone for people with severe cases of multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a new study published in the February 11, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Researchers identify signaling molecules in intestinal stem cells that can lead to tumors if left unregulated. The findings suggest a new approach to targeting intestinal cancers.

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Researchers in the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute have devised a novel way to generate transplantable corneal stem cells that may eventually benefit patients suffering from life-altering forms of blindness.

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In a new study from Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, researchers have used human pluripotent stem cells to generate new hair. The study represents the first step toward the development of a cell-based treatment for people with hair loss. In the United States alone, more than 40 million men and 21 million women are affected by hair loss. The research was published online in PLOS One yesterday.

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A new human embryonic stem cell line containing the genetic mutation for adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), and neurons grown from those cells, are now helping scientists study the condition -- thanks to an embryo donated by a couple seeking to avoid passing the disease to their son.

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A stem cell capable of regenerating both bone and cartilage has been identified in bone marrow of mice.

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UCLA researchers have for the first time developed a method that defines many stages of reprogramming skin or blood cells into pluripotent stem cells. Study analyzed the reprogramming process at the single-cell level on a daily basis. Results determined that stages of cell change were the same across different reprogramming systems and cell types analyzed.

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Placental cells could potentially be used to treat stroke or other injuries to the nervous system attributable to low oxygen or glucose levels according to newly published study.

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Scientists from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have created a statistical model that measures the proportion of cancer incidence, across many tissue types, caused mainly by random mutations that occur when stem cells divide. By their measure, two-thirds of adult cancer incidence across tissues can be explained primarily by “bad luck,” when these random mutations occur in genes that can drive cancer growth, while the remaining third are due to environmental factors and inherited genes.

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University of Colorado Cancer Center study shows that pre-programmed stem cell demise allows cancer after radiation, and that NOTCH signaling can restore stem cell function.

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Weizmann’s Dr. Jacob Hanna and Cambridge University scientists have made a first-in-the-world breakthrough: creating human primordial cells. The group has turned back the clock on human cells to create primordial germ cells: the embryonic cells that give rise to sperm and ova. Scientists worldwide have been pursuing this goal for several years.

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A new test may reveal which patients will respond to treatment for graft versus host disease (GVHD).

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Human stem cells made from adult donor cells “remember” where they came from and that’s what they prefer to become again. This means the type of cell obtained from an individual patient to make pluripotent stem cells, determines what can be best done with them.

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Research scientists have developed a novel method to re-create brain and intestinal stem cells from patients who died decades ago, using DNA from stored blood samples to study the potential causes of debilitating illnesses such as inflammatory bowel disease.

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UCLA scientists have discovered a protein which is integral to the regulation of human blood stem cell regeneration. Study revealed that stem cells which lack the protein have markedly increased ability to replicate in vivo and following transplantation. Discovery provides new understanding of human stem cell self-renewal and paves the way for targeted therapies to make stem cells grow.

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While investigating a rare genetic disorder, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that a ubiquitous signaling molecule is crucial to cellular reprogramming, a finding with significant implications for stem cell-based regenerative medicine, wound repair therapies and potential cancer treatments.

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Delivering stem cell factor directly into damaged heart muscle after a heart attack may help repair and regenerate injured tissue.

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UCLA stem cell researchers cured 18 children born without a working immune system due to life-threatening ADA-deficient Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID). Breakthrough stem cell gene therapy developed by Dr. Donald Kohn and team identifies and corrects faulty gene in children with ADA-deficient SCID using child’s own cells.

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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.

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A team from the Morgridge Institute for Research regenerative biology group, led by University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and stem cell pioneer James Thomson, discovered a way to impose an immortal-like state on mouse progenitor cells responsible for producing blood and vascular tissue. By regulating a small number of genes, the cells became “trapped” in a self-renewing state and capable of producing functional endothelial, blood and smooth muscle cells.

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UCLA stem cell scientists discover unique cell surface protein GPI-80 that is key to self-renewal of hematopoietic (blood forming) stem cells (HSCs) during human development. Discovery paves the way for scientists to distinguish HSCs from their short-lived daughter cells and identify the unique properties that enable them to self-renew.

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Researchers regenerate and heal mouse hearts by using the molecular machinery the animals had all along.

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Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine describe the surprising and crucial involvement of a pro-inflammatory signaling protein in the creation of hematopoietic stem cells (HScs) during embryonic development, a finding that could help scientists to finally reproduce HSCs for therapeutic use.

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Induced neural stem cells (iNSCs) hold promise for therapeutic transplantation, but their potential in this capacity has been limited by failed efforts to maintain such cells in their multi-potent NSC state. Now, Whitehead Institute scientists have created iNSCs that remain in the multi-potent state—without ongoing expression of reprogramming factors. This allows the iNSCs to self-renew repeatedly to generate cells in quantities sufficient for therapy.

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UCLA scientists show that two genes not previously known to be involved with the immune system play an active role in directing stem cells to fight infection

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Researchers at UC Davis have found that the drug bortezomib effectively treats chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a common and debilitating side effect from allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplants. The trial showed that bortezomib provides better outcomes than existing treatments and does not impair the immune response against residual cancer cells, or the graft-versus-tumor effect (GVT).

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UCLA researchers have developed a benchmark to assess how well stem cell culture conditions in the lab resemble counterparts in the developing embryo

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In a push to further speed clinical development of emerging stem cell therapies, Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at UC San Diego Health System was named today one of three new “alpha clinics” by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state’s stem cell agency.

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Scientists have described a way to convert human skin cells directly into a specific type of brain cell affected by Huntington’s disease, an ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disorder. Unlike other techniques that turn one cell type into another, this new process does not pass through a stem cell phase, avoiding the production of multiple cell types, report researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

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UC San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center is pushing therapeutic stem cell-based science out of the laboratory and closer to real-world medical applications. The unprecedented trials involve potential therapies for spinal cord injuries, Type 1 diabetes and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

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While megakaryocytes are best known for producing platelets that heal wounds, these “mega” cells found in bone marrow also play a critical role in regulating stem cells according to new research from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. In fact, hematopoietic stem cells differentiate to generate megakaryocytes in bone marrow. The Stowers study is the first to show that hematopoietic stem cells (the parent cells) can be directly controlled by their own progeny (megakaryocytes).

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UCLA stem cell researcher Dr. Arjun Deb has discovered that some scar-forming cells in the heart, known as fibroblasts, have the ability to become endothelial cells (the cells that form blood vessels), and this study can point the way toward a new strategy for treating patients after a heart attack.

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A Mount Sinai-led research team has discovered a new kind of stem cell that can become either a liver cell or a cell that lines liver blood vessels, according to a study published today in the journal Stem Cell Reports.

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A UCLA study shows how, in pregnant mice, inflammation, a first line defense of the immune system, can trigger an excessive division of neural stem cells that can cause “overgrowth” in the offspring’s brain, and, ultimately, autistic behavior.

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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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Two major breakthroughs in the treatment of necrotizing enterocolitis suggest that there may finally be a way to stop this lethal disease of prematurity.

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A protein implicated in several cancers appears to play a pivotal role in keeping stem cells in an immature “pluripotent” state, according to a new study by NYU Langone Medical Center scientists.

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The liver provides critical functions, such as ridding the body of toxins. Its failure can be deadly, and there are few options for fixing it. But scientists now report in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces a way to potentially inject stem cells from tonsils, a body part we don't need, to repair damaged livers — all without surgery.