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Stem Cell Research News

New Way To Fuse Cells

MIT engineers have developed a new, highly efficient way to pair up cells so they can be fused together into a hybrid cell. The new technique should make it much easier for scientists to study what happens when two cells are combined.  For example, fusing an adult cell and an embryonic stem cell allows researchers [...]

Mechanism Regulating Neural Stem Cell Development

A research team at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montreal (IRCM), funded by the Foundation Fighting Blindness ? Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), discovered a novel mechanism that regulates how neural stem cells of the retina generate the appropriate cell type at the right time during normal development.  These findings, [...]

Circadian Clock Determines Stem Cell Mobilization

A new study uncovers a previously unrecognized, species-specific impact of circadian rhythms on the production of mobilized stem cells.  The research, published by Cell Press in the October 9th issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, suggests that when it comes to collecting human stem cells for clinical transplantation, picking the right time of day [...]

Stem Cells Heal Damaged Hearts

Recent studies indicate that infusing hearts with stem cells taken from bone marrow could improve cardiac function after myocardial infarction (tissue damage that results from a heart attack).  But in a recent systematic review, Cochrane Researchers concluded that more clinical trials are needed to assess the effectiveness of stem cell therapies for heart patients, as [...]

Method for Creating Inducible Stem Cells

Some of the most challenging obstacles limiting the reprogramming of mature human cells into stem cells may not seem quite as daunting in the near future.  Two independent research papers, published by Cell Press in the September 11th issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, describe new tools that provide invaluable platforms for elucidating the [...]

Tumor Blood Vessel Cells Atypical

Contrary to a long-standing assumption that blood vessel cells in healthy tissues and those associated with tumors are similar, a new study unequivocally demonstrates that tumor blood vessel cells are far from normal.  The research, published by Cell Press in the September issue of the journal Cancer Cell, identifies tumor-specific blood vessel cells that are [...]

Identified Genes Which Control Embryonic Stem Cell Fate

Scientists have identified about two dozen genes that control embryonic stem cell fate.  The genes may either prod or restrain stem cells from drifting into a kind of limbo, they suspect.  The limbo lies between the embryonic stage and fully differentiated, or specialized, cells, such as bone, muscle or fat. By knowing the genes and [...]

Protein Lnk Keeps Hematopoietic Stem Cells Silent

Wei Tong and colleagues, at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, have provided new insight into the molecular control of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), the cells that give rise to all types of blood cell, by explaining why mice lacking an inhibitory protein known as Lnk have more HSCs than normal mice. In the study, it was [...]

Muscle Stem Cell Transplant Increases Diseased Muscle Function

Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center have demonstrated for the first time that transplanted muscle stem cells can both improve muscle function in animals with a form of muscular dystrophy and replenish the stem cell population for use in the repair of future muscle injuries. “I’m very excited about this,” said lead author Amy J. [...]

Stem Cells Restore Muscle in Muscular Dystrophy

By injecting purified stem cells isolated from adult skeletal muscle, researchers have shown they can restore healthy muscle and improve muscle function in mice with a form of muscular dystrophy.  Those muscle-building stem cells were derived from a larger pool of so-called satellite cells that normally associate with mature muscle fibers and play a role [...]

Stem Cell Fate Pathway Uncovered

How does a stem cell decide what specialized identity to adopt ? or simply to remain a stem cell? A new study suggests that the conventional view, which assumes that cells are ?instructed? to progress along prescribed signaling pathways, is too simplistic. Instead, it supports the idea that cells differentiate through the collective behavior of [...]

c-Cbl Protein Identified as Important Repressor of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Se...

Dr. Richard Flavell (Yale University) and colleagues identify the c-Cbl protein as a critical repressor of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) self-renewal in the April 15th issue of G&D,.  In addition to establishing a key role for protein ubiquitylation in HSC development, this finding posits c-Cbl as a potential target in research into stem cell engineering [...]

Mature B Cells Reprogrammed to Pluripotent Stem Cells

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.  (April 18, 2008) ? A team of researchers have demonstrated that fully mature, differentiated B cells can be reprogrammed to an embryonic-stem-cell-like state, without the use of an egg according to a study published in the April 18 issue of Cell. In previous research, induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells have been created from [...]

Ovarian Cancer Stem Cells Identified

A team of researchers at Yale School of Medicine have identified, characterized and cloned ovarian cancer stem cells and have shown that these stem cells may be the source of ovarian cancer?s recurrence and its resistance to chemotherapy. ?These results bring us closer to more effective and targeted treatment for epithelial ovarian cancer, one of [...]

SPECT Imaging Reveals Heart Stem Cell Therapy Benefits

New cellular therapies benefits came to light as a result of powerful PET and SPECT imaging in a recent study reported in the April issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Researchers in Germany were able to observe the repair action of circulating progenitor cells (CPCs), immature blood-derived cells capable of developing into adult stem [...]