Bone Repair ‘Breakthrough’ at Hadassah
A team has managed for the first time in the world to separate platelets and adult stem cells from the blood and bone marrow of patients with fractures and inject them – causing the bones to meld in a quarter to third of the time it usually takes to repair bones, and repairing some breaks that without the therapy would fail to heal at all. [Jerusalem’s Hadassah University Medical Center, Jerusalem]
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Adult Cell Self-Renewal Without Stem Cells?
A French team has shown that self-renewal is possible without recourse to stem cell intermediates by achieving the ex vivo regeneration of macrophages, specialized cells in the immune system, over several months. [Universite Aix-Marseille 2, Marseille]
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Edmonton Doctor’s Stem Cell Research Gives Hope for Premature Babies
An Edmonton doctor has began injecting stem cells, derived from bone marrow, into the diseased lungs of baby rats and found that the cells prevented further damage. [Royal Alexandra Hospital, Edmonton]
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Emory Wins 1st Stem Cell Trial for ALS
Emory University will be the site of the first U.S. clinical trial that focuses on using stem cells to slow the progression of adults with Lou Gehrig’s disease. [Neuralstem Inc., Rockville]
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Mercy Gilbert Scores State First with Stem Cell Treatment
Doctors have begun treating first-time heart attack patients using adult stem cells, which they hope will rebuild damaged heart tissue and reduce the risk of heart failure. [Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, Gilbert]
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Researchers Use Gene Therapy to Slow Brain Disease
The brain disease X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy can be treated with a combination of gene therapy and blood stem cell therapy, new EU-funded research shows. [Universite Paris Descartes, Paris]
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PUBLICATIONS, REVIEWS AND SPECIAL REPORTS
Designing Materials to Direct Stem Cell Fate
Biomaterials are rapidly being developed to display and deliver stem cell-regulatory signals in a precise and near-physiological fashion, and serve as powerful artificial microenvironments in which to study and instruct stem-cell fate both in culture and in vivo. [Nature]
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Human Embryonic Stem Cell Derivatives for Full Reconstruction of the Pluristratified Epidermis: a Preclinical Study
To assess whether the keratinocyte progeny of human embryonic stem cells could be used to form a temporary skin substitute for use in patients awaiting autologous grafts, the researchers investigated the cells’ capability of constructing a pluristratified epidermis. [J Lancet]
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Antibody Response to Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccines after Nonmyeloablative Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation
In this study, the reconstitution of humoral immunity after allo-RIST is determined by measuring the vaccination-induced antibody response against Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and tetanus toxoid (TT) 1 year posttransplantation. [Biol Blood Marrow Transplant]
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