Category Archives: Stem Cell Research

Dr Leonie Quinn looking at Drosophila (vinegar flies) through the microscope. Credit: Stuart Hay, ANU New research highlights the significant role the surrounding environment of stem cells, known as the niche, might play in the brain size of babies with microcephaly. Mutations in certain genes have been linked with small brains (microcephaly), dwarfism and other developmental defects. Since the discovery of these microcephaly genes, extensive research has been conducted to determine how they cause smaller brains in patients. Although much research has focused on defective neural stem cell function as the likely culprit in causing small brains in patients with a mutation in the microcephaly protein WDR62, researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) have found that reduced brain size is caused by loss of WDR62 function in the stem cell microenvironment. "Using genetic models we found when this gene was mutated in the neural stem cells the brain size wasn't affected at all. The neural stem cells were reduced but the other cells in the brain compensate," said Dr Quinn group leader at The John Curtin School of Medical Research at ANU. "Instead, only reduction of WDR62 in the stem cell microenvironment (or niche) severely reduces brain growth by … Continue reading →

The PASE, or post-implantation amniotic sac embryoid, is a structure grown from human pluripotent stem cells that mimics many of the properties of the amniotic sac that forms soon after an embryo implants in the uterus wall. The structures could be used to study infertility. Credit: University of Michigan The first few weeks after sperm meets egg still hold many mysteries. Among them: what causes the process to fail, leading to many cases of infertility. Despite the importance of this critical stage, scientists haven't had a good way to explore what can go wrong, or even what must go right, after the newly formed ball of cells implants in the wall of the human uterus. But a new achievement using human stem cells may help change that. Tiny lab-grown structures could give researchers a chance to see what they couldn't before, while avoiding ethical issues associated with studying actual embryos. A team from the University of Michigan reports in Nature Communications that they have coaxed pluripotent human stem cells to grow on a specially engineered surface into structures that resemble an early aspect of human development called the amniotic sac. The cells spontaneously developed some of the same structural and … Continue reading →

An Odessa physician who specializes in pain management has begun offering stem cell therapy for inflammation from a variety of arthritis. Dr. Mandeep Othee of ProCare Interventional Pain Medicine, said stem cell therapy has been around since as early as 1938. It has recently been used to stem inflammation, wound care and post-surgical use to help in healing. The purpose for me is going to be for inflammation for knee arthritis, shoulder arthritis any sort of arthritic process in the neck, the back; any part of the body, Othee said. Othee said hes always interested in cutting-edge treatments. As associate medical director of In-Patient Rehabilitation at Medical Center Hospital, Othee oversees care for patients with a variety of orthopedic needs, ranging from stroke patients to those recovering from joint replacement surgery, the hospital website said. He also specializes in diagnosing and treating neck and low-back pain. The source of the amniotic stem cells is healthy women who have had C-sections who donate their amniotic fluid to a tissue bank. Othee said it is fully regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the cells are purified and frozen to preserve them. The cells provide cushioning, support and lubrication to … Continue reading →

What causes the body to age? The Greek Philosopher Aristotle thought it was the hearta hot, dry organ at the seat of intelligence, motion and sensation. Fast-forward a few centuries, and the brain has overthrown the heart as master of thought. But its control over bodily agingif anywas unclear. Because each organ has its own pool of stem cells to replenish aged tissue, scientists have long thought that the body has multiple aging clocks running concurrently. As it turns out, thats not quite right. This week, a study published in Nature threw a wrench into the classical theory of aging. In a technical tour-de-force, a team led by Dr. Dongsheng Cai from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine pinpointed a critical source of aging to a small group of stem cells within the hypothalamusan ancient brain region that controls bodily functions such as temperature and appetite. Like fountains of youth, these stem cells release tiny fatty bubbles filled with mixtures of small biological molecules called microRNAs. With age, these cells die out, and the animals muscle, skin and brain function declines. However, when the team transplanted these stem cells from young animals into a middle-aged one, they slowed aging. The … Continue reading →

A new method of isolating lung stem cells could help speed the development of stem-cell based therapies for lung diseases, including cystic fibrosis, according to a University of North Carolina study. That method is extracting them with a tube from the mouth to the lung rather than surgery. The team has already used the method in their pulmonary fibrosis research work. The new study, Derivation of therapeutic lung spheroid cells from minimally invasive transbronchial pulmonary biopsies, was published in the journalRespiratory Research. Doctors can use stem cells to restore injured lungs, but obtaining and maintaining the cells is challenging. Not only do they need a lot of lung tissue to extract the stem cells, but the way they have obtained the tissue with surgery is highly invasive. This has led to high death rates among patients who have had the biopsy surgery. Still, isolating the cells for stem cell-based therapies is a good way to treat many lung diseases. Until recently,University of North Carolina Health Careresearchers used lung tissue biopsies to obtain stem and support cells that they can cultivate for treatments. They discovered thatlung spheroid cells can help regenerate the lungs of mice with pulmonary fibrosis. The team is … Continue reading →

A novel device that reprogrammes skin cells could represent a breakthrough in repairing injured or ageing tissue, researchers say. The new technique, called tissue nanotransfection, is based on a tiny device that sits on the surface of the skin of a living body. An intense, focused electric field is then applied across the device, allowing it to deliver genes to the skin cells beneath it turning them into different types of cells. That, according to the researchers, offers an exciting development when it comes to repairing damaged tissue, offering the possibility of turning a patients own tissue into a bioreactor to produce cells to either repair nearby tissues, or for use at another site. By using our novel nanochip technology, injured or compromised organs can be replaced, said Chandan Sen, from the Ohio State University, who co-led the study. We have shown that skin is a fertile land where we can grow the elements of any organ that is declining. The ability for scientists to reprogram cells into other cell types is not new: the discovery scooped John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka the Nobel Prize in 2012 and is currently under research in myriad fields, including Parkinsons disease. You can … Continue reading →

A cancer scare helped encourage stem cell researcher Paul Knoepfler to become an outspoken watchdog over his field. Carl Costas By Kelly ServickAug. 3, 2017 , 9:00 AM SACRAMENTOBack in his lab after a week of vacation, Paul Knoepfler slogs through backlogged emails: A 71-year-old woman with arthritic knees would like to know whether a stem cell clinic she researched can give her relief. The parents of a 12-year-old with a degenerative eye disease wonder whether there's any hope of averting blindness with a stem cell injection. "Kindly apprise us of expenses and chance of success," they ask. Knoepfler, though housed in the Shriners Hospitals for Children here, isn't a physician. And his University of California (UC), Davis, lab doesn't study arthritis or eye disease, nor does he have any experience developing a stem cell therapy. He mostly uses stem cells to study cancer-causing gene mutations. But thanks to The Niche, a blog he has run since 2010, Knoepfler has become an unlikely authorityand a dogged voice of cautionon the clinical use of stem cells. The blog, which now averages more than 4000 daily visits, has elevated him from an obscure bench scientist to an international spokesperson on all things … Continue reading →

Even though Richard Lopez is still in high school, he can already tell you a thing or two about the ureteric bud, the metanephric mesenchyme and the developing kidney. More impressively, he was familiar with these terms before starting his summer internship in the lab of Andy McMahon, kidney researcher and director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC. I knew I was going to come here, Lopez said. So from December on, I was just reading papers that were written by Dr. McMahons lab. And so I read about the development of the kidney, kidney organoids, experimental methods like in situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry, all that stuff. Im really glad I did all of that because now that Im here, I understand whats going on. Lopez undertook this intense preparation as part of the Science Research Program at his Connecticut boarding school, Choate Rosemary Hall. In addition to familiarizing him with the McMahon labs research, the program provided experience with useful molecular biology techniques, ranging from gel electrophoresis to polymerase chain reaction. Lopez didnt start his high school career at Choate. Growing up in Lennox near the Los Angeles International Airport, … Continue reading →

Hypothalamic Stem Cells The hypothalamus is the region of the brain that helps to regulate internal conditions like body temperature and blood concentration, but new research shows that it may fail us as we age. The research indicates that as the hypothalamuss stem cells die off, the region actually starts to promote aging, causing mental and physical faculties to decline at a more rapid pace. In the past, researchers have observed that the hypothalamus becomes inflamed over time. This lead them to posit that the area is connected to aging. Recent research on mice proved that reversing the inflammation in the hypothalamus increases the animals life span and slows physical deterioration. In this latest study, scientists focusedon the stem cells of the hypothalamus. In younger animals, these stem cells divide and replace damaged and dead cells. However, as this research shows, over time the number of stem cells present in the hypothalamus drops. Inold age, they are essentially gone. The team believed they were on to something, but undertook some practical experiments to see if their ideas were borne out by the evidence. First, they altered mice genetically to ensure theyd be out of stem cells(at a point earlier than … Continue reading →

A close-up of cell mutations that cause cancer. Steve Gschmeissner/Science Source Chemotherapy is brutal a medicinal atomic bomb that destroys large swaths of cells, both cancerous and normal. And as a result, patients are often left physically devastated. In a new study published in Science Translational Medicine, scientists at UC Irvine say they've come up with a way to use stem cells to help ameliorate those side effects. Think of it as a surgical strike with cancer-seeking missiles. Professor Weian Zhao and his colleagues from UC Irvine modified stem cells so that they'd be attracted to enzymes released by breast cancer tumors. So, when injected into the body, the stem cells seek out the cells and bond with them. The enzymes the scientists identified cause tissue to clump up into bundles of collagen and protein to create stiff tumors. The tumors become lumps that a patient can sometimes feel, and they act as a protective home for the cancerous cells. The stem cells release an enzyme of their own, in turn, activating a type of chemotherapy that's been injected into the patient, which is inert until in comes in contact with the enzyme. The idea being that the chemotherapy only … Continue reading →