Cloning And Stem Cell News, Research and Resources - December 2008 Archives

Gene therapy reversed heart damage in heart failure (12/31/2008)

Long-term gene therapy resulted in improved cardiac function and reversed deterioration of the heart in rats with heart failure, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at Thomas Jefferson University's Center for Translational Medicine. ...> Full Article

Scientists succeed through stem cell therapy in reversing brain birth defects (12/30/2008)

Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have succeeded in reversing brain birth defects in animal models, using stem cells to replace defective brain cells. ...> Full Article

Recipe for capturing authentic embryonic stem cells may apply to any mammal, study suggests (12/26/2008)

Researchers have what they think may be a basic recipe for capturing and maintaining indefinitely the most fundamental of embryonic stem cells from essentially any mammal, including cows, pigs and even humans. Two new studies reported in the Dec. 26 issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, show that a cocktail first demonstrated to work in mice earlier this year, which includes inhibitory chemicals, also can be used to successfully isolate embryonic stem cells from rats. ...> Full Article

Researchers derive first embryonic stem cells from rats (12/25/2008)

Researchers at the University of Southern California have, for the first time in history, derived authentic embryonic stem cells from rats. This breakthrough finding will enable scientists to create far more effective animal models for the study of a range of human diseases. ...> Full Article

Molecular events involved in liver regeneration (12/24/2008)

A research group from Germany investigated if there is a relation between the extent of liver resections and activation of certain molecular processes playing a role in liver regeneration. They found a delayed activation of NF-kappa B and reduced expression of cytokines relevant for beginning and continuation of liver regeneration after liver resection of major extent. ...> Full Article

Scientists reveal mechanism that triggers differentiation of embryo cells (12/23/2008)

The mechanism whereby embryonic cells stop being flexible and turn into more mature cells that can develop into specific tissues has been discovered by scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The discovery has significant consequences towards furthering research that will eventually make possible medical cell replacement therapy based on the use of embryonic cells. ...> Full Article

Stem cells drug testing predicted to boom under Obama (12/20/2008)

Embryonic stem cells could provide a new way of testing drugs for dangerous side effects, according to a leading British researcher. ...> Full Article

Primary cilium as cellular 'GPS system' crucial to wound repair (12/19/2008)

Research will be presented at American Society for Cell Biology conference ...> Full Article

Single virus used to convert adult cells to embryonic stem cell-like cells (12/18/2008)

Adult cells, from both humans and mice, can be converted into embryonic stem cell-like cells using a single virus to insert four reprogramming genes into the cells' genomes. Previous reprogramming approaches have relied on four separate viruses, one virus for each gene, to deliver the genes to cellular nuclei. Because this new method inserts the genes in only one place, it is less disruptive to a cell's genome. ...> Full Article

Single adult stem cell can self renew, repair tissue damage in live mammal (12/17/2008)

Research will be presented at American Society for Cell Biology conference ...> Full Article

Cerebral cortical tissue from ES cells (12/17/2008)

The cortical regions of the brain are structurally complex and functionally important, providing the neural substrate for many of the brain's highest functions, such as language, memory, emotion and thought. The cortex begins to form from the anterior end of the neural plate, and is characterized by its laminar structure in which neurons born at different developmental stages migrate to different cortical layers, each with its own functions and circuitry. Given this highly stratified and interconnected three-dimensional architecture, corticogenesis would at first blush seem to require involve myriad, complex processes difficult to reproduce in vitro. ...> Full Article

Scientist devises new way to more rapidly generate bone tissue (12/16/2008)

Research by Dr. Jeremy Mao and colleagues uses stem cell combination that promotes vascularization in bone and other tissues ...> Full Article

Clones from dead, frozen mice (12/16/2008)

The cloning of animals by nuclear transfer has been shown in a wide range of species from laboratory standards such as mice and rats, to agriculturally important sheep, pigs, horses and cows. The cloning procedure typically involves extracting the nucleus from a somatic cell taken from one animal (the donor) and injecting into a fertilizing egg from which the nucleus has been removed. The ability of the oocyte to reprogram the transferred nucleus from a somatic to a totipotent state remains one of the great mysteries of cell and developmental biology. But the fact that cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer remains a very low efficiency process has led many to believe that the integrity of the donor cells providing the genome may be critical to its success. ...> Full Article

Preventing a broken heart: Research aims to reduce scarring from heart attacks (12/15/2008)

A heart damaged by heart attack is usually broken, at least partially, for good. The injury causes excessive scar tissue to form, and this plays a role in permanently keeping heart muscle from working at full capacity ...> Full Article

Heart regenerates after infarction -- first trials with mice (12/12/2008)

Up until today, scientists assumed that the adult heart is unable to regenerate. Now, researchers from Germany have been able to show that this dogma no longer holds true. They demonstrated that the body's heart muscle stem cells generate new tissue and improve the pumping function of the heart considerably in adult mice, when they suppress the activity of a gene regulator known as beta-catenin in the nucleus of the heart cells. ...> Full Article

Lab expands understanding of bone marrow stem cell niche (12/7/2008)

The Stowers Institute's Linheng Li Lab has identified the precise location of the bone marrow stem cell niche. The findings were published today in the advance online publication of Nature. ...> Full Article

Some blood-system stem cells reproduce more slowly than expected (12/7/2008)

Investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital have found a subpopulation of hematopoietic stem cells, the source of all blood and immune system cells, that reproduce much more slowly than previously anticipated. Use of these cells may improve the outcome of stem cell transplants -- also called bone marrow transplants -- for the treatment of leukemia and other marrow-based diseases. ...> Full Article

Dormant stem cells for emergencies (12/6/2008)

A small group of stem cells in the bone marrow remains dormant almost throughout life. Only in case of injury or blood loss do they awaken and become active. Then they start dividing immediately to make up for the loss of blood cells. The possibility of specifically waking up these dormant stem cells opens up new prospects for cancer treatment. ...> Full Article

Scientists prove endothelial cells give rise to blood stem cells (12/6/2008)

Discovery could lead to new treatments for blood disorders, cancers ...> Full Article

$2.4 million toward gene therapy for human degenerative retinal diseases (12/5/2008)

A Canadian and American research group including the team of Dr. Robert Koenekoop from the Research Institute at the Montreal Children's Hospital of the MUHC has just been awarded CA$2.4 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Foundation Fighting Blindness Canada. This five-year grant will fund an ambitious research project to develop innovative gene therapies for a number of human degenerative retinal diseases. ...> Full Article

New 'control knobs' for stem cells identified (12/4/2008)

Tufts study shows that changes in membrane voltage control timing of differentiation in adult stem cells ...> Full Article

Reprogrammable cell type depends on a single gene to keep its identity (12/3/2008)

St. Jude study shows the Prox1 gene is a two-way switch that, if turned off, causes lymphatic endothelial cells to be reprogrammed so that they lose their identity and become more like blood endothelial cells ...> Full Article