AP Bio Project Genetic Engineering
It #39;s epic, watch... Ms. Kenna #39;s Class!

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Over 50,000 people took to the streets of the German capital Berlin on Saturday to demand that the government changes its farming policy and halt the increasing industrialisation of agriculture.

The mass protest against factory farming and genetic engineering of crops was timed to coincide with International Green Week, an agricultural trade fair held annually in the city.

Under the slogan: We are sick of agribusiness, protesters called for a worldwide right to food, legal restrictions to protect food and agriculture from genetic manipulation and an end to the establishment of mega-factory farms.

The protesters marched from Potsdam Square to the Federal Chancellery demanding rejection of the planned Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement between the European Union and the US.

Jochen Fritz, spokesman for the alliance of more than 120 environmental, consumer and development organisations behind the protest, said that TTIP would ruin many farmers livelihoods.

TTIP only serves global concerns and will take away the means of existence from many farms here and across the world, he said.

Mr Fritz added that the agreement would also jeopardise consumer standards and that more than three-quarters of German pig farmers had had to give up their businesses since 2000, with large meat companies increasingly taking over livestock farming.

He called for agriculture to be based on regional markets.

Eating is political. Every single decision I make about what to buy is determined by how the animals are kept or

what grows in our fields, he added.

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Morning Star :: 50,000 protest in Berlin to protect farming from big business

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Still Alice Movie Clip - Genetics (2015) Julianne Moore Movie HD
"Still Alice" Movie Clip - Genetics (2015) Julianne Moore Movie HD Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics profes...

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Genetics 101 Mind Map

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Juvenile Arthritis report gene therapy approach
educational and entertainment channel in the field of orthopedic surgery and sometimes other surgical or medical fields.

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An exhaustive hereditary analysis of a large Louisiana family with vision issues has uncovered a new gene tied to an incurable eye disorder called retinitis pigmentosa, according to an examination led by scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). It is a family of eye diseases that affects more than 200,000 in the United States and millions worldwide

The retina converts images into electrical signals that can be processed by the brain. It acts much like the film in a camera. Retinitis pigmentosa damages this film (the retina) and its early symptoms include decreased night vision and peripheral vision. Once it starts, the loss of vision is relentlessly progressive, often ending in blindness.

In the journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, UTHealth's Stephen P. Daiger, Ph.D., and his colleagues report their discovery of a new gene tied to retinitis pigmentosa, which brings the total of genes associated with this sight-threatening disease to more than 60. The gene is called hexokinase 1 (HK1).

This information is important because it helps affected families cope with the disorder, helps explain the biologic basis of these diseases and suggests targets for drug treatments and gene therapy, said Daiger, the report's senior author and holder of the Thomas Stull Matney Ph.D. Endowed Professorship in Environmental and Genetic Sciences at UTHealth School of Public Health.

"The challenge now is to block the activity of these mutations and clinical trials are underway to do just that," he said.

"Dr. Daiger is trying to make a breakthrough in potentially blinding diseases with no known treatments," said Richard S. Ruiz, M.D., professor of ophthalmology and holder of the John S. Dunn Distinguished University Chair in Ophthalmology at UTHealth. "Right now, we address the symptoms of the disease and help patients make the most of their existing vision."

For approximately three decades, Daiger, a member of the Human Genetics Center at the UTHealth School of Public Health, has been following the progress of hundreds of families across the country with retinitis pigmentosa. "We've found the cause of disease in 80 percent of the families we have studied," Daiger said. "Our goal is to find the cause in the remaining 20 percent."

Equipped with the genetic profiles of family members, Daiger's team has identified differences in the genetic makeup of those with the disease. The researchers also use family histories and DNA tests to glean information about the condition's hereditary nature.

There are different types of retinitis pigmentosa and Daiger's laboratory is focused on the autosomal dominant type. This means that only one parent needs the mutation in order to pass the disease to a child. This type accounts for about a third of all cases and many of its disease-causing genes have been discovered, several by Daiger's research group.

"The story of the HK1 mutation is itself interesting. What we found is a mutation present in families from Louisiana, Canada and Sicily. Our evidence suggests the mutation arose in a common ancestor who lived centuries ago," Daiger said. "The mutation spread in Europe and North America, and may be common among Acadians in Louisiana. This is called a founder mutation."

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A previously unknown type of cell regenerates mouse lung tissue killed by the flu virus, according to a new study led by UC San Francisco scientists. In addition to its possible relevance to the hundreds of thousands of annual human deaths from flu, the work points toward a potential strategy for treating other forms of acute lung injury, as well as the cellular damage seen in end-stage pulmonary fibrosis.

The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 500,000 people per year die from influenza. But surprisingly little is known about how human lungs react to severe flu infections, in part because lung tissue from humans who die from flu is difficult to obtain for research, according to UCSFs Hal Chapman, MD, professor of medicine and senior author of the new study.

The lining of hollow organs, such as the lungs and those that make up the gastrointestinal tract, is composed of a thin layer of cells known as epithelia, as is the surface of skin. The skin and gut heal rather quickly because they constantly regenerate epithelial cells and slough them off, but the turnover of epithelial cells in the lung is very slow, Chapman said, and lung injury caused by acute infections or by chronic disease is a pressing health problem.

It has generally been believed that surviving mature epithelial cells are the first responders following injury to the epithelial lining. But in the new study, led by postdoctoral fellow Andrew Vaughan, PhD, and published in the advance online edition of Nature on Dec. 24, infection with the flu virus instead activated a tiny population of cells in the mouse lung that were distinct from any mature epithelial cells.

After activation, these cells, dubbed LNEPs (lineage-negative epithelial stem/progenitor cells), greatly expanded in number and became remarkably mobile, Vaughan said, rapidly migrating to sites of injury. Once there, they began to differentiate into normal epithelial cells.

Moreover, when the researchers transplanted LNEPs they had isolated from the lungs of healthy mice into the lungs of mice infected with influenza, the cells differentiated into appropriate types of epithelial cells depending on the transplant location, and they integrated appropriately into lung tissue. These experiments demonstrated that LNEPs are multipotent like stem cells, they have the capacity to transform into a range of cell types.

The scientists demonstrated that the proliferation of LNEPs is driven by signals from a protein called Notch, which governs cell growth in almost all animals. During development, a period of rapid cell proliferation, Notch eventually shuts down, prompting cells to differentiate into the range of distinctive cell types that make up various tissues. In the flu-infected mice, however, Notch signaling could sometimes remain activated, which hampered the formation of normal epithelium by LNEPs.

In the transplant experiments, for example, regions of the lung with high levels of Notch signaling formed honeycomb-like cysts of a sort seen in patients with advanced idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and in scleroderma, an autoimmune disease of connective tissue. When the researchers examined human lung tissue from IPF and scleroderma patients containing such cysts, they observed both high levels of Notch signaling and cells that bore markers also seen in mouse LNEPs, which suggests that some features of advanced lung disease may reflect a regenerative process gone awry.

It remains to be seen whether its a workable strategy to transplant human LNEPs into injured regions of the lung to repair damage from disease or infection, Chapman said, and it will be crucial to better understand how to tamp down Notch signaling to control the process.

Treating lung injury using LNEPs would require more than just obtaining and transplanting the cells, he said. Youd also have to manipulate the milieu so that you get the sort of engraftment you want, and I think thats true of any organ in which youre trying to regenerate tissue.

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Dr Sherif Stem cell therapy on OA
lecture powerpoint.

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The numbness entered Kathleen Jaynes' body 19 years ago, and during the intervening years the multiple sclerosis symptom has spread from her toes to her chest. Nothing really changes the numbness, or helps. Which is why, despite her sister's misgivings and her own lingering questions, Jaynes paid $20,000 to receive an experimental stem cell procedure in India through Regenetek, a company led by a now-discredited Winnipeg researcher who fudged his credentials and misled patients.

It's not like there are many other sources of hope out there for patients such as Jaynes, 59, who lives in southeast Arizona.

"You're a no-option patient," Jaynes said. "You have no other options. I justified it in every way that I could, despite my family saying this guy is not for real. Unless you're in my numb body, you can't know how desperate you feel to not feel that way."

In exchange for that money, Jaynes and roughly 70 other patients received what one of Canada's top MS researchers calls an "impossible" promise.

In December, Dr. Mark Freedman looked over Regenetek's study protocols, after a reporter drew his attention to the company's claims. Freedman, who is the director of Ottawa Hospital's MS research unit, has plenty of experience with stem cell treatments for the disease: In 2000, he and bone marrow transplant physician Dr. Harold Atkins launched a study to examine whether transplanting stem cells from a patient's own bone marrow could halt the disease.

The study was closely watched, the results tremendously encouraging. The 24 patients in the study -- all of whom had a rapidly advancing form of MS -- showed improvement. Freedman and Atkins also treated about a dozen more patients outside of the study, who have shown the same positive results. The researchers have submitted the study's results for publication in a scientific journal, and are preparing to announce new research sites later this month.

But the procedure Regenetek owner Doug Broeska was touting wasn't anything like the technique that showed such promise in Freedman and Atkins' study.

For instance, Jaynes and other Regenetek patients the Free Press spoke to described having stem cells extracted, expanded and implanted within days of their arrival in Pune, India.

But the premise that patients could receive benefits from stem cells taken from bone marrow extracted just four days earlier -- and which had to make a 300-kilometre round-trip journey between Pune and a lab in Mumbai at that time -- is "impossible," Freedman said.

Culturing and expanding enough of those kind of stem cells is a process that takes "weeks," Freedman said, adding bluntly: "They're not getting anything."

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The Future of Weight Loss
We have an exciting new weight loss program at the Kotsanis Institute that uses your own DNA to determine the best diet plan for you, based on your genetic makeup. This is truly personalized...

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Is Personalized Medicine Practical in Oncology Care?
Peter Salgo, MD, and Bryan Loy, MD, discuss the impact of personalized medicine on medical oncology and explore the challenges that affect its use in daily p...

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Dr. Bernard Thbaud, Regenerative Medicine Researcher at The Ottawa Hospital
Tender Loving Research helping premature babies.

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Osteoarthritis is a common condition seen in older people in which the tissue between joints becomes worn down, causing severe pain. In what could be an important development for people who suffer from it, U.S. researchers have isolated stem cells in adult mice that regenerate both worn tissue, or cartilage, and bone.

For the past decade, researchers have been trying to locate and isolate stem cells in the spongy tissue or marrow of bones of experimental animals.

x

The so-called osteochondroreticular, or OCR, cells are capable of renewing and generating important bone and cartilage cells.

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center in New York identified these master cells in the marrow. When grown in the lab and transplanted back into a fracture site in mice, they helped repair the broken bones.

Siddhartha Mukherjee, the study's senior author, said similar stem cells exist in the human skeletal system.

The real provocative experiment or the provocative idea is being able to do this in humans being able to extract out these stem cells from humans and being able to put them back in to repair complex fracture defects or osteoarthritis defects, said Mukherjee.

He noted that children have more bone stem cells than adults, which may explain why the bones of young people repair more easily than fractures in adults.

Mukherjee said the next step is to try to identify the OCR cells in humans and attempt to use them to repair complex bone and cartilage injuries.

Once cartilage is injured or destroyed in older people, as in osteoarthritis, Mukherjee said it does not repair itself.

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By Amy Norton HealthDay Reporter Latest Mental Health News

THURSDAY, Jan. 15, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Snowbirds who flock south in winter in search of the warmth of the sun, listen up:

People who carry a particular gene variant may be more likely to develop an "addiction" to tanning, a preliminary study suggests.

The idea that ultraviolet light can be addictive -- whether from the sun or a tanning bed -- is fairly new. But recent research has been offering biological evidence that some people do develop a dependence on UV radiation, just like some become dependent on drugs.

"It's probably a very small percentage of people who tan that become dependent," said study author Brenda Cartmel, a researcher at the Yale School of Public Health.

But understanding why some people become dependent is important, Cartmel said, so that refined therapies can be developed.

"Ultimately, what we want to do is prevent skin cancer," she said. "We are seeing people getting skin cancer at younger and younger ages, and some of that is definitely attributable to indoor tanning."

In the United States, the rate of melanoma has tripled since 1975 -- to about 23 cases per 100,000 people in 2011, according to government statistics. Melanoma is the least common, but most serious, form of skin cancer.

Cartmel said that, since genes are known to sway the risk of addiction in general, her team wanted to see if there are any gene variants connected to tanning dependence.

So the investigators analyzed saliva samples from 79 people with signs of tanning dependence and 213 people who tanned but were not addicted.

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Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of the German capital, Berlin, on Saturday, calling on the government to change course with its farming policies and protesting against an increasing industrialization of agriculture.

Organizers said some 50,000 people attended the rally, which took place during the International Green Week, an agricultural trade fair held annually in Berlin. Police were more sober with their estimate of 25,000 participants, saying that the protest remained peaceful.

Under the motto "We are sick of agribusiness," protesters called for a worldwide right to food, legal restrictions to protect food and agriculture from genetic manipulation and a stop to the building of mega-factory farms.

TTIP under fire

Protesters, who marched from Potsdam Square to the Federal Chancellery, also demanded the rejection of the planned TTIP free-trade agreement between the European Union and the USA.

The spokesman for the alliance of more than 120 environmental, consumer and development organizations behind the protest, Jochen Fritz, said TTIP would ruin the livelihood of many farmers.

"The EU-USA trade agreement TTIP only serves global concerns, and will take away the means of existence from many farms here and across the world," he said, adding that the agreement would also jeopardize consumer standards.

The EU and US have been holding negotiations on the TTIP since July 2013. Its advocates say a free-trade zone would give an enormous boost to economies on both sides of the Atlantic, but critics in Europe fear a drop in consumer protection and food safety standards.

'Protests having effect'

Fritz also criticized agricultural policies in Germany, saying that they had forced more than three quarters of German pig farmers to give up their businesses since 2000, with large meat companies increasingly taking over livestock farming. He called for agriculture on the basis of regional markets.

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Thousands protest in Berlin against industrialized farming

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Two Educational Goals in Plant Genetics Courses
The goals of agronomy courses are discussed, as well as how UNL keeps students on the cutting edge.

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Still Alice Movie CLIP - Genetics (2015) - Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart Drama HD
Subscribe to TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/sxaw6h Subscribe to COMING SOON: http://bit.ly/H2vZUn Like us on FACEBOOK: http://goo.gl/dHs73 Follow us on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/1ghOWmt Still Alice Movie...

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Japanese research also report the stem cells have effect on natural killer cells and monocyte function

Putnam Valley, NY. (Jan. 16th, 2015) - Stem cells derived from human amnion have for some time been considered promising for cell therapies because of their ease of access, ability to differentiate, and absence of ethical issues. Now, a Japanese research team has found that stem cells derived from human female amnion also have immunosuppressive activity and that the addition of antibodies to specific factors can enhance their immunosuppressive potential.

The study will be published in a future issue of Cell Transplantation and is currently freely available on-line as an unedited early e-pub at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/pre-prints/content-CT-1273_Li_et_al.

The amniotic membrane is a tissue of fetal origin comprised of three layers. It is thought that there is a special immunologic mechanism protecting the fetus, so researchers were interested in finding out what immunological properties might reside in - and be extractable from - amnion cells.

"The human amniotic membrane contains both epithelial cells and mesenchymal cells," said study co-author Dr. Toshio Nikaido, Department of Regenerative Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Toyama, Toyoma, Japan. "Both kinds of cells have proliferation and differentiation characteristics, making the amniotic membrane a promising and attractive source for amnion-derived cells for transplantation in regenerative medicine. It is clear that these cells have promise, although the mechanism of their immune modulation remains to be elucidated."

In this study, amnion-derived cells exerted an inhibitory effect on natural killer cells (NKs) and induced white blood cell activation. The researchers reported that the amnion-derived cells saw increases in interleukin-10 (IL-10).

"We consider that IL-10 was involved in the function of amnion-derived cells toward NK cells," explained Dr. Nikaido. "The immunomodulation of amnion-derived cells is a complicated procedure involving many factors, among which IL-10 and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) play important roles."

Naturally occurring prostaglandins, such as PGE2, have important effects in labor and also stimulate osteoblasts to release factors that stimulate bone resorption by osteoclasts. PGE2 also suppresses T cell receptor signaling and may play a role in resolution of inflammation.

The use of antibodies against PGE2 and IL-10 removed the immunosuppressive effects of the amnion-derived cells by increasing natural killer cell cytotoxicity. This implies that these two factors are contributing elements to the immunosuppressive abilities of amnion-derived cells.

"Soluble factors IL-10 and PGE2 produced by amnion-derived cells may suppress allogenic, or "other" related immune responses," concluded Dr. Nikaido. "Our findings support the hypothesis that these cells have potential therapeutic use. However, further study is needed to identify the detailed mechanisms responsible for their immodulatory effects. Amnion-derived cells must be transplanted into mouse models for further in vivo analysis of their immunosuppressive activity or anti-inflammatory effects."

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Stem cells derived from amniotic tissues have immunosuppressive properties

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Live100 Hospitals - Stem Cell Therapy
"We wanted to focus on stem cell after seeing the advantages since the cells were available in the body and they were really doing wonderful research across the world which was really promising...

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How Can Stem Cell Therapy Help PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) - Next Generation Stem Cell
http://www.nextgenerationstemcell.com Stem Cell Therapy Stem Cell Research.

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A multiple sclerosis patient from Saskatchewan who travelled to India to undergo an experimental stem cell treatment is defending the Winnipeg company that recruited her for the therapy and study, which some have called into question.

Regenetek Research has been under scrutiny following media reports this week about its CEO, Doug Broeska.

Broeska had recruited MS patients to take part in the experimental and expensive study, which was administered in India, involving stem cell injections combined with so-called liberation therapy, which involves the widening of veins in the neck.

He was, until recently, also the principal researcher for the study related to the treatment.

However, some patients have questioned Broeska's qualifications as a researcher. As well, some say the therapy did not work for them, and they were not receive proper followup.

Other patients, like Linda Friesen of Tisdale, Sask., reported having success with the therapy.

"I am shocked right now. I am surprised in what has been said," she told CBC News when asked about the latest allegations.

Friesen said she used to rely on a wheelchair because of her MS and injuries from a car accident, but she left that wheelchair behind at the hospital in India after undergoing the experimental treatment which cost her $34,000 US in 2013.

"It's so amazing to have this opportunity to be part of the research," she said in a promotional video produced by Regenetek.

Friesen told CBC News that the company has paid her to help other MS patients in Saskatchewan with their paperwork.

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In a new study, researchers from Duke University in Durham, NC, reveal they have grown the first ever human skeletal muscle that contracts in response to external stimuli, such as electrical impulses and pharmaceuticals. The team says their creation paves the way for testing of new drugs and the study of diseases without having to put a patients heath at risk.

This is a microscopic view of the lab-grown human muscle.

Image credit: Duke University

The beauty of this work is that it can serve as a test bed for clinical trials in a dish, says study leader Nenad Bursac, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Duke.

We are working to test drugs efficacy and safety without jeopardizing a patients health and also to reproduce the functional and biochemical signals of diseases especially rare ones and those that make taking muscle biopsies difficult.

Bursac and his team says there is a strong focus on the development of in vitro models for use in medical research, motivated by ethical factors such as reducing animal testing and the need to improve health outcomes in human patients.

In June last year, Medical News Today reported on the creation of lab-grown miniature human hearts by researchers from Abertay University in the UK, while another study revealed how researchers from the University of Texas successfully grew human lungs from the cells of deceased children.

But Bursac and his team say while much progress has been made in creating in vitro models for liver, lung and cardiac tissues, there has been little progress toward the development of human skeletal muscle.

This is of particular concern as there are a wide range of metabolic, neuromuscular and dystrophic disorders involving skeletal muscle that are under investigation and still lacking therapies, they note.

Lab-grown muscle closely mimics responses of native human muscle

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Scientists grow first ever contracting human muscle in a lab dish

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VIDEO:A stem cell capable of regenerating both bone and cartilage has been identified in bone marrow of mice. The discovery by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) is reported... view more

NEW YORK, NY (January 15, 2015) - A stem cell capable of regenerating both bone and cartilage has been identified in bone marrow of mice. The discovery by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) is reported today in the online issue of the journal Cell.

The cells, called osteochondroreticular (OCR) stem cells, were discovered by tracking a protein expressed by the cells. Using this marker, the researchers found that OCR cells self-renew and generate key bone and cartilage cells, including osteoblasts and chondrocytes. Researchers also showed that OCR stem cells, when transplanted to a fracture site, contribute to bone repair.

"We are now trying to figure out whether we can persuade these cells to specifically regenerate after injury. If you make a fracture in the mouse, these cells will come alive again, generate both bone and cartilage in the mouse--and repair the fracture. The question is, could this happen in humans," says Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at CUMC and a senior author of the study.

The researchers believe that OCR stem cells will be found in human bone tissue, as mice and humans have similar bone biology. Further study could provide greater understanding of how to prevent and treat osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, or bone fractures.

"Our findings raise the possibility that drugs or other therapies can be developed to stimulate the production of OCR stem cells and improve the body's ability to repair bone injury--a process that declines significantly in old age," says Timothy C. Wang, MD, the Dorothy L. and Daniel H. Silberberg Professor of Medicine at CUMC, who initiated this research. Previously, Dr. Wang found an analogous stem cell in the intestinal tract and observed that it was also abundant in the bone.

"These cells are particularly active during development, but they also increase in number in adulthood after bone injury," says Gerard Karsenty, MD, PhD, the Paul A. Marks Professor of Genetics and Development, chair of the Department of Genetics & Development, and a member of the research team.

The study also showed that the adult OCRs are distinct from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which play a role in bone generation during development and adulthood. Researchers presumed that MSCs were the origin of all bone, cartilage, and fat, but recent studies have shown that these cells do not generate young bone and cartilage. The CUMC study suggests that OCR stem cells actually fill this function and that both OCR stems cells and MSCs contribute to bone maintenance and repair in adults.

The researchers also suspect that OCR cells may play a role in soft tissue cancers.

###

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A stem cell capable of regenerating both bone and cartilage has been identified in bone marrow of mice. The discovery by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) is reported today in the online issue of the journal Cell.

The cells, called osteochondroreticular (OCR) stem cells, were discovered by tracking a protein expressed by the cells. Using this marker, the researchers found that OCR cells self-renew and generate key bone and cartilage cells, including osteoblasts and chondrocytes. Researchers also showed that OCR stem cells, when transplanted to a fracture site, contribute to bone repair.

"We are now trying to figure out whether we can persuade these cells to specifically regenerate after injury. If you make a fracture in the mouse, these cells will come alive again, generate both bone and cartilage in the mouse--and repair the fracture. The question is, could this happen in humans," says Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at CUMC and a senior author of the study.

The researchers believe that OCR stem cells will be found in human bone tissue, as mice and humans have similar bone biology. Further study could provide greater understanding of how to prevent and treat osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, or bone fractures.

"Our findings raise the possibility that drugs or other therapies can be developed to stimulate the production of OCR stem cells and improve the body's ability to repair bone injury--a process that declines significantly in old age," says Timothy C. Wang, MD, the Dorothy L. and Daniel H. Silberberg Professor of Medicine at CUMC, who initiated this research. Previously, Dr. Wang found an analogous stem cell in the intestinal tract and observed that it was also abundant in the bone.

"These cells are particularly active during development, but they also increase in number in adulthood after bone injury," says Gerard Karsenty, MD, PhD, the Paul A. Marks Professor of Genetics and Development, chair of the Department of Genetics & Development, and a member of the research team.

The study also showed that the adult OCRs are distinct from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which play a role in bone generation during development and adulthood. Researchers presumed that MSCs were the origin of all bone, cartilage, and fat, but recent studies have shown that these cells do not generate young bone and cartilage. The CUMC study suggests that OCR stem cells actually fill this function and that both OCR stems cells and MSCs contribute to bone maintenance and repair in adults.

The researchers also suspect that OCR cells may play a role in soft tissue cancers.

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Columbia University Medical Center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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THURSDAY, Jan. 15, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Medicare indicated recently that it might soon cover CT scans to check longtime smokers for early lung cancer, and these types of scans are becoming more common.

Now, an experimental test may help determine whether lung nodules detected by those scans are malignant or not, researchers say.

The test, which checks sputum (respiratory mucus) for chemical signals of lung cancer, was able to distinguish early stage lung cancer from noncancerous nodules most of the time, according to findings published Jan. 15 in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

"We are facing a tremendous rise in the number of lung nodules identified because of the increasing implementation of the low-dose CT lung cancer screening program," Dr. Feng Jiang, associate professor, department of pathology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, explained in a journal news release.

"However, this screening approach has been shown to have a high false-positive rate," he added. "Therefore, a major challenge is the lack of noninvasive and accurate approaches for preoperative diagnosis of malignant nodules."

Testing a patient's sputum for a group of three genetic signals -- called microRNA (miRNA) biomarkers -- may help overcome this problem, Jiang said.

Jiang and his colleagues first tried the test in 122 people who were found to have a lung nodule after they underwent a chest CT scan. The sputum test was nearly 83 percent accurate in identifying lung cancer, the study found, and nearly 88 percent in correctly identifying when a lung nodule was not cancerous.

In two other groups of patients tested, the rates were about 82 percent and 88 percent, and 80 percent and 86 percent, respectively.

However, those results are still not high enough for the panel to be used for diagnosing patients, so more work must be done to boost accuracy, the researchers said.

"We are now applying new technologies to identify additional miRNA sputum biomarkers of lung cancer with the goal of expanding our biomarker panel to generate a test with high efficiency that can be practically used in clinical settings for lung cancer early detection," Jiang said.

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Gene-Based Spit Test Shows Promise in Lung Cancer Detection

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