Stem Cells // Current TV

Stem cell treatment heals police dog

Cris, a police dog, is a five-year-old German Shepherd which tore a muscle last year... more

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Send in the clones

For the first time since Hwang Woo-Suk's cloned stem cells were revealed as... more

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New chemical keeps stem cells young

Scientists at the Universities of Bath and Leeds have discovered a chemical that stops stem cells from turning into other cell types, allowing researchers to use these cells to develop new medical treatments more easily.

Stem cells have the ability to develop into many other cell types in the body, and scientists believe they have huge potential to treat diseases or injuries that don't currently have a cure.

Professor Melanie Welham's team at the University of Bath's Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology, collaborating with Professor Adam Nelson at the University of Leeds, have discovered a chemical that can be added to embryonic stem cells grown in the lab, allowing them to multiply without changing into other cell types.

This breakthrough will help scientists produce large stocks of cells that are needed for developing new medical therapies.

Professor Welham, who is co-director of the University of Bath's Centre for Regenerative Medicine, explained: "Stem cells have great potential for treating spinal injuries and diseases like type I diabetes because they can change into a range of specialised cell types including nerve or pancreatic cells, which could be used to repair damaged tissues.

"Unfortunately, when you grow stem cells in the lab, they can spontaneously develop into specialised cells, making it difficult to grow large enough stocks to use for medical research.

"We've identified a chemical that will put this process on hold for several weeks so that we can grow large numbers of them in their unspecialised state. This is reversible, so when you take it away from the cells, they still have the ability to change into specialised cells."

Professor Adam Nelson's team, at the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, made more than 50 chemical compounds that were tested for activity in the stem cells.The researchers found that the chemicals worked by blocking an enzyme, called GSK3, that can control when the stem cell switches to a more specialised cell type.

Professor Nelson, who is Director of the Astbury Centre at the University of Leeds, said: "This research is a great example of how small molecules can be used as tools to understand biological mechanisms."

The research, supported by funding from the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council, is published in the prestigious peer-reviewed Cell Press journal, Chemistry & Biology.Scientists at the Universities of Bath and Leeds have discovered a chemical that stops... more

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Animal-human embryos studies questioned

It may be futile to try producing stem cells by putting human DNA into cow or rabbit... more

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Green light for US stem cell work

US regulators have cleared the way for the world's first study on human embryonic... more

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Stem Cell Research: Beyond the Controversy

We are students at Ex'pression College for Digital Arts in Emeryville, CA. For... more

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Trial seeks blindness cure

UK scientists are to begin a two-year trial with a cutting-edge treatment using adult... more

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UK set to launch major stem cell work

A team of Glasgow researchers are set to launch a major trial to assess whether stem... more

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Cancer stem cells may not be the supervillains we thought

The controversial idea that all tumors are created by cancer stem cells received a... more

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Stem cells could end animal testing

As well as their potential for creating effective therapies for debilitating diseases,... more

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Vatican condemns IVF, stem-cell research in bioethics document

A Vatican bioethics document today condemned artificial fertilisation and other... more

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Doctors transplant windpipe with stem cells

Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue grown from her own stem cells,... more

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Woman Gets Organ Made From Stem Cells, World First

This is why stem-cell research is so important people...

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Doctors transplant windpipe with stem cells

Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue grown from her own stem cells, eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs. "This technique has great promise," said Dr. Eric Genden, who did a similar transplant in 2005 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. That operation used both donor and recipient tissue. Only a handful of windpipe, or trachea, transplants have ever been done.

If successful, the procedure could become a new standard of treatment, said Genden, who was not involved in the research.

The results were published online Wednesday in the medical journal, The Lancet.

The transplant was given to Claudia Castillo, a 30-year-old Colombian mother of two living in Barcelona, suffered from tuberculosis for years. After a severe collapse of her left lung in March, Castillo needed regular hospital visits to clear her airways and was unable to take care of her children.

Doctors initially thought the only solution was to remove the entire left lung. But Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, head of thoracic surgery at Barcelona's Hospital Clinic, proposed a windpipe transplant instead.

Once doctors had a donor windpipe, scientists at Italy's University of Padua stripped off all its cells, leaving only a tube of connective tissue.

Meanwhile, doctors at the University of Bristol took a sample of Castillo's bone marrow from her hip. They used the bone marrow's stem cells to create millions of cartilage and tissue cells to cover and line the windpipe.

Experts at the University of Milan then used a device to put the new cartilage and tissue onto the windpipe. The new windpipe was transplanted into Castillo in June.

"They have created a functional, biological structure that can't be rejected," said Dr. Allan Kirk of the American Society of Transplantation. "It's an important advance, but constructing an entire organ is still a long way off."

So far, Castillo has shown no signs of rejection and is not taking any immune-suppressing drugs, which can cause side effects like high blood pressure, kidney failure and cancer.

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Pretty amazing stuff, let's hope the the lady continues to remain healthy.Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue grown from her own stem cells,... more

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Transplant Aided by Stem Cells a Medical First

A Colombian woman has received the world's first tailor-made trachea transplant,... more

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Riken researchers make brain tissues from stem cells

"Kobe- Japanese researchers said Thursday they had created functioning human... more

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'New prostate' grown inside mouse

Scientists have grown new prostate glands in mice, in another advance for stem cell... more

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Human Testicles Yield Stem Cells

Scientists have derived potentially therapeutic stem cells from adult, human... more

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Testicles 'are stem cell source' Possible Breakthrough!

The cells in a man's testicles may be able to do a lot more than just make sperm... more

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