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Showing posts from September, 2017

3D-printed patch can help mend a 'broken' heart

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A workforce of biomedical engineering researchers has created a revolutionary 3D-bioprinted patch that may assist heal scarred coronary heart tissue after a coronary heart assault. Two of the researchers concerned are biomedical engineering Affiliate Professor Brenda Ogle (proper) and Ph.D. pupil Molly Kupfer (left). Credit score: Patrick O’Leary, College of Minnesota A workforce of biomedical engineering researchers, led by the College of Minnesota, has created a revolutionary 3D-bioprinted patch that may assist heal scarred coronary heart tissue after a coronary heart assault. The invention is a serious step ahead in treating sufferers with tissue injury after a coronary heart assault. The analysis research is revealed in  Circulation Analysis , a journal revealed by the American Coronary heart Affiliation. Researchers have filed a patent on the invention. In line with the American Coronary heart Affiliat...

Graft-versus-host disease successfully prevented

Allogeneic (meaning from a donor) hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is a curative therapy for cancers of the blood and lymph system, including leukemia and lymphoma. It works by introducing healthy immune cells, or T cells, that eliminate tumor cells and prevent the cancer from relapsing. Unfortunately, the same donor T cells can also attack the healthy tissue of the recipient's body such as gut, liver, lung, and skin, leading to induction of graft- (T cell) versus-host (recipient's body) disease, or GVHD. Symptoms can be mild to severe and often include mouth ulcers, gastrointestinal distress, and rashes. "Currently, immunosuppressive drugs have been used to prevent GVHD, but immune-suppressants also subdue the anti-cancer effects of the donor T cells, potentially resulting in cancer relapse, in addition to other side effects such as an increased risk of infection," explains Zeng. "Therefore, prevention of GVHD while preserving anti-cancer effects rem...

Protein primes mouse stem cells to quickly repair injury, study finds

Mice given the priming protein recover muscle function more quickly after damage, their skin heals more rapidly and even the shaved area around the injury regrows hair more quickly, the study found. Harnessing the power of this protein may one day help people recover more quickly from surgery or restore youthful vigor to aging stem cells. "We're trying to better understand wound healing in response to trauma and aging," said Thomas Rando, MD, PhD, professor of neurology and neurological sciences. "We've shown that muscle and bone marrow stem cells enter a stage of alertness in response to distant injury that allows them to spring into action more quickly. Now we've pinpointed the protein responsible for priming them to do what they do better and faster." Rando, who also directs Stanford's Glenn Center for the Biology  of Aging, is the senior author of the study, which will be published April 18 in  Cell Reports . Former postdoctoral scholar Jos...

Alerting stem cells to hurry up and heal

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Newly regenerated muscle fibers are proven. Credit score: Picture courtesy of Joseph T. Rodgers Accelerated therapeutic is not only for superheroes. A brand new research in  Cell Studies  suggests a means that mere mortals can probably pace their restoration from all kinds of accidents. "Our analysis reveals that by priming the physique earlier than an harm, you may pace the method of tissue restore and restoration, just like how a vaccine prepares the physique to a struggle an infection," mentioned lead creator Joseph T. Rodgers. He started the analysis throughout his postdoctoral research on the Stanford College College of Medication, and continued it in his present place as an assistant professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medication at USC. This current research builds upon Rodgers' earlier discovering: when one a part of the physique suffers an harm, grownup stem cells in unhurt a...

Identical twins, not-so-identical stem cells

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A brand new twin examine sheds gentle on epigenetic patterns in stem cells. Credit score: © pololia / Fotolia Salk scientists and collaborators have make clear a long-standing query about what results in variation in stem cells by evaluating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from an identical twins. Even iPSCs created from the cells of twins, they discovered, have vital variations, suggesting that not all variation between iPSC traces is rooted in genetics , because the twins have an identical genes. As a result of they will differentiate into nearly any cell kind within the physique, stem cells have the potential for use to create wholesome cells to deal with quite a few ailments. However stem cells are available two varieties: embryonic stem cells (ESCs), that are remoted from embryos, and iPSCs, that are created within the lab from grownup cells which can be reprogrammed utilizing mixtures of signa...

Protection for the gut barrier: New approach may prevent graft-versus-host disease

In order to enable foreign stem cells to multiply in the body and produce healthy blood cells, doctors first need to make room for them. This is achieved by destroying existing cells in the bone marrow using drugs or radiation. One of the risks resulting from this pre-treatment is GVHD, which occurs in about half of all treatments. In simple terms, during GVHD the transplanted stem cells become T lymphocytes. These immune cells, which are supposed to fight intruders such as bacteria, take a wrong turn and start attacking the recipient's already weakened body. In a paper published in the journal  Science Translational Medicine , an international team headed by TUM adjunct teaching professor Dr. Hendrik Poeck and Dr. Tobias Haas, heads of a research group at the third medical clinic of TUM's Klinikum rechts der Isar, and Professor Marcel van den Brink at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York City, describes how this process could be prevented. ...

Discovery offers new hope to repair spinal cord injuries

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Todd McDevitt (proper), Jessica Butts (middle) and Dylan McCreedy (left) created a particular sort of neuron from human stem cells that might probably restore spinal twine accidents. Credit score: Chris Goodfellow, Gladstone Institutes Scientists on the Gladstone Institutes created a particular sort of neuron from human stem cells that might probably restore spinal twine accidents. These cells, known as V2a interneurons, transmit indicators within the spinal twine to assist management motion. When the researchers transplanted the cells into mouse spinal cords, the interneurons sprouted and built-in with present cells. V2a interneurons relay indicators from the mind to the spinal twine, the place they finally join with motor neurons that undertaking out to the legs and arms. The interneurons cowl lengthy distances, projecting up and down the spinal twine to provoke and coordinate muscle motion, in addition to resp...

New insights on triggering muscle formation

"In adult skeletal muscle, the process of generating muscle -- myogenesis -- depends on activating MuSCs that are in a resting, or quiescent, state. As we age, our MuSCs transition to a permanently inactive state called senescence, from which they can't be 'woken up' to form new muscle fibers," says Lorenzo Puri, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the Development, Aging and Regeneration Program at SBP. "If we could encourage senescent MuSCs to start replicating and advance through myogenesis -- perhaps through pharmacological interventions -- we may have a way to help build muscle in patients that need it," adds Puri. The goal of the study was to define the molecular determinants that lead to irreversible MuSC senescence. Using a combination of a mouse model and human fibroblasts, the team found that the reason old MuSCs can't be activated to generate muscle cells is that they spontaneously activate a DNA damage response (DDR) even in the absence of exp...

Genes need to be screened for stem cell transplants

However, a research team from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI), Harvard Medical School (HMS), and the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has found that as stem cell lines grow in a lab dish, they often acquire mutations in the TP53 (p53) gene, an important tumor suppressor responsible for controlling cell growth and division. Their research suggests that genetic sequencing technologies should be used to screen for mutated cells in stem cell cultures, so that cultures with mutated cells can be excluded from scientific experiments and clinical therapies. If such methods are not employed it could lead to an elevated cancer risk in those receiving transplants. The paper, published online in the journal  Nature  on April, 26, comes at just the right time, the researchers said, as experimental treatments using human pluripotent stem cells are ramping up across the country. "Our results underscore the need for the field of ...

Bare bones: Making bones transparent

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A mouse tibia that has been rendered clear with Bone CLARITY. Stem cells seem distributed all through the bone in purple. The flexibility to see bone stem cell conduct is essential for testing new osteoporosis remedies. Credit score: Science Translational Medication , Greenbaum, Chan, et al; Gradinaru laboratory/Caltech Ten years in the past, the bones presently in your physique didn't truly exist. Like pores and skin, bone is continually renewing itself, shedding previous tissue and rising it anew from stem cells within the bone marrow. Now, a brand new method developed at Caltech can render intact bones clear, permitting researchers to look at these stem cells inside their setting. The strategy is a breakthrough for testing new medication to fight illnesses like osteoporosis . The analysis was achieved within the laboratory of Viviana Gradinaru (BS '05), assistant professor of biology and organic engine...