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Sunday 23 Feb 2014 7:59 PM

Written byELEANOR DICKINSON

Sufferers of serious brain diseases could one day be helped by stem cell treatments , according to scientists at Cambridge University.

Scientists at the University hope to be able to use the regenerative power of stem cells to treat major brain conditions such as Parkinsons and Huntingtons disease.

Their findings are expected to be revealed at the Cambridge Festival of Science next month.

Robin Franklin, the newly appointed Professor of Stem Cell Medicine, will be discussing his research into central nervous system regeneration and the possibility of treating multiple sclerosis.

He said: The brain, although capable of unmatched feats of adaptability, is generally considered to be an organ that is very poor at mending itself after injury.

However, one particular type of brain cell, called the oligodendrocyte the cell that makes the myelin wrapping around nerve fibres can be regenerated when lost in disease by the brains own stem cells.

By studying in the laboratory how brain stem cells generate new oligodendrocytes it has been possible to identify ways in which this important regenerative process might be achieved in the clinic, offering the

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Stem cells to fight brain diseases say Cambridge scientists

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Human albumin (red) and another human protein called Ki67 (green) shows that human fibroblast-derived hepatocytes replicate both function and proliferation of hepatocytes after transplantation into mouse livers.

A new cellular reprogramming shortcut by scientists at the Gladstone Institutes and UC San Francisco has produced what appear to be functional human hepatocytes. Created from skin cells, the reprogrammed cells proliferated and demonstrated function when transplanted into mice with liver failure.

The method avoids problems in earlier attempts that used the induced pluripotent stem cell route to grow hepatocytes from fibroblasts. Instead of regressing the skin cells to the embryonic-like pluripotent stage, the scientists cut the process short at a stage mimicking endoderm cells. These cells are parents of both skin and liver cells.

The cells were changed by applying genes transferred through retroviruses, then culturing them with growth factors to walk them back to what they called an "induced multipotent progenitor cell (iMPC)" stage, then to the endoderm stage. The scientists then applied other growth factors that differentiated the cells into what apparently were hepatocytes.

To test whether these cells actually functioned as hepatocytes, researchers implanted them into mouse models of liver failure. The cells proliferated and displayed signs of hepatocyte function.

Study results were reported online Sunday in the journal Nature by scientists led by Sheng Ding of Gladstone and Holger Willenbring of UCSF. Ding joined Gladstone in 2011 after a distinguished career at The Scripps Research Institute.

One drawback of using pluripotent cells is they form tumors; so any cells grown from them must be carefully screened before transplantation. The new method appears to have solved this problem.

"Unfractionated iMPC-Heps did not form tumours, most probably because they never entered a pluripotent state," the study stated.

Moreover, induced pluripotent stem cells couldn't be reliably converted into liver cells, Ding said in a UCSF/Gladstone press release.

The ability of the new method to create cells that grow and function for months after transplantation "establishes them as promising candidates for in vivo modeling and autologous therapy of human liver diseases," the study stated.

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Liver cells grown with new reprogramming method

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Researchers observed tiny voids forming in silicon used for solar panels; these voids provide physical evidence of the Staebler-Wronski effect, which reduces the solar cell efficiency by up to 15 percent within the first 1000 hours.

Using an online avatar with a skin color other than your own makes you less racist in real life; playing a hero makes you less cruel, and playing a villain less benevolent.

Old mouse muscles exhibit elevated levels of activity in a biological cascade called the p38 MAP kinase pathway which prevents stem cells from dividing and repairing muscle damage. By blocking this pathway with a drug, researchers grew a new generation of potent stem cells in a petri dish and transplanted them back into old mice. Two months after transplantation, these muscles exhibited forces equivalent to young, uninjured muscles.

Continuing its exhaustive penetration into the ecosphere, plastic has been observed built into the hives of urban bees. The researcher notes, although cells made with plastic may not hold together as welland might have other, unseen effects on developing beesthey could have advantages too such as keeping parasites away from eggs.

A protein normally necessary to shut down inflammation is undetectable in triple-negative breast cancer cells. Without the protein, these cells can proliferate rapidly, but a new drug treatment can prevent the protein degradation.

Boys playing football is not the only recipe for head trauma: girls playing soccer are also at risk. A total of 351 players were observed for one full season, and cumulatively suffered 59 concussions, mostly from player-to-player contact, heading the ball, and goal-tending.

A study surveying leaky valves and pipes in the rapidly growing natural gas industry observed 50% more methane leakage than expected, but the extra atmospheric contribution still causes less global warming than coal.

An isopod that infects California fish is the only known parasite to functionally replace a hosts organ. The bug latches on to a fishs tongue and sucks out the blood, causing it to atrophy. After latching on to the diminished tongue it settles in for a life of holding food up against the small teeth on the roof of the fishs mouth while also getting first dibs on all that fish food.

In the courtroom, weak evidence is strengthened by arbitrary precision. Precision (along with body language) communicates confidence, which makes people more likely to believe what you are saying.

Engineered viruses can deliver instructions for making crucial growth factors to stem cells; when seeded onto a polymer scaffold incorporating the viruses, stem cells can achieve self-sufficient growth and replace the scaffold with (for example) a tailored piece of cartilage.

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Last Week on ResearchBlogging.org [Page 3.14]

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Washington, Feb. 23 : A team of researchers, who conducted largest ever study of patients with advanced leukemia, have found that 88 percent achieved complete remissions after being treated with genetically modified versions of their own immune cells, thus demonstrating that cell therapy is a powerful treatment for patients who have exhausted all conventional therapies.

Michel Sadelain, MD, PhD, Director of the Center for Cell Engineering at Memorial Sloan Kettering and one of the study's senior authors said their initial findings have held up in a larger cohort of patients, and they are already looking at new clinical studies to advance this novel therapeutic approach in fighting cancer.

Adult B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), a type of blood cancer that develops in B cells, is difficult to treat because the majority of patients relapse. Patients with relapsed B-ALL have few treatment options; only 30 percent respond to salvage chemotherapy.

In the current study, 16 patients with relapsed B-ALL were given an infusion of their own genetically modified immune cells, called T cells. The cells were "reeducated" to recognize and destroy cancer cells that contain the protein CD19.

While the overall complete response rate for all patients was 88 percent, even those with detectable disease prior to treatment had a complete response rate of 78 percent, far exceeding the complete response rate of salvage chemotherapy alone.

Cell-based, targeted immunotherapy is a new approach to treating cancer that harnesses the body's own immune system to attack and kill cancerous cells.

The study was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

--ANI (Posted on 23-02-2014)

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Immune cell therapy may revolutionize leukemia treatment

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Genetic engineering good to help with diseases, disabilitie
Good to help people with diseases, disabilities, and deformities.

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EL PT 2014 Podcast 1 Genetic Engineering Designer Babies
Done by: Pang Cheng Feng(Leader) Lim Wei Feng(Primary Editor) Low Kai Ferng(Video Editor) Jedidiah Cheng(Secondary Editor) Loo Zhong Han(Secondary Editor) Th...

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Lot 23 Warner Beef Genetics

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Mutant Genetics E2
Campaign battle.

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Genetics Testing: What Consumers Need to Know with Heather Hampel, MS, CGC
On this week #39;s segment of Toward a Cancer-Free World, Heather Hampel, a certified genetic counselor at #TheJames, talks with WBNS-10TV about genetic testing.

By: Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-James Cancer Hospital Solove Research Institute

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Lot 132 Warner Beef Genetics

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After a heart attack, there is often permanent damage to a portion of the heart. This happens, in part, because cardiac muscle cells are terminally differentiated and cannot proliferate after blood flow is blocked off to the heart. This partial healing can be attributed to heart disease being one of the leading causes of death. What if the cells could be stimulated to divide and the heart could be induced to repair itself? This was the question posed by George Washington University (GW) researcher Scott Shapiro, M.D., Ph.D., and his co-authors, who found that cardiac regeneration may be a possibility with gene therapy.

The research, published yesterday in Science Translational Medicine, found that gene therapy can elicit a regenerative response in pig hearts. Shapiro and his research team first looked to small animals such as the zebrafish, which are able to regenerate heart tissue after a heart attack. This animal has a key protein at play, Cyclin A2 (Ccna2).

After seeing the effects of CCna2 in small animals, we began looking at the effects of the gene in larger animals, such as pigs, said Shapiro, assistant professor of medicine at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences. We delivered Ccna2 directly into the heart and found that pigs not only had improved cardiac function, but also found evidence of cellular regeneration.

Ccna2 is a prenatal gene normally turned off in humans after birth. Shapiro believes using gene therapy as a tool for cardiac regeneration, optimized for humans, could lead to a viable treatment option for patients who suffer from myocardial infarction, or heart attack.

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

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Gene therapy a promising tool for cardiac regeneration

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CLINICell Stem Cell Therapy for Knee Meniscus Tear 1 year Follow-Up
Stem cell therapy for knee post operative interview. This patient came in with a knee meniscus tear and one year after his initial procedure patient is pain ...

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Stem Cell Therapy - Studies That Support Regenerative Therapy (Regenexx)
Dr Robert Wagner of Stem Cell ARTS discusses the research and science behind advanced regenerative medicine therapies and the track record of treating knee, ...

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Dad sees me walk for the first time on birthday, since I was told "You will never walk again."
After I broke my back, with results of a Spinal Cord Injury - I was told I would never walk again. It was especially hard for my dad, because he lived in a n...

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Platelet Rich Plasma Prolotherapy injections to the elbow
Prolotherapist Danielle Steilen, MMS, PA-C demonstrates a Prolotherapy with PRP treatment to a lateral elbow. If you have a sports injury or other elbow pain...

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How To Survive Armageddon, Peter Kling 20Feb2014
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3:10 How To Survive Armageddon, Peter Kling 20Feb2014
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