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While scientists hotly debate the existence of cancer stem cells, three related new studies, all conducted on mice, provide some supporting evidence. Stem cells are the foundation for healthy cell growth in the body. Some researchers believe that malignant stem cells also exist—so-called cancer stem cells that generate tumors and resist treatment by simply re-growing afterward. "Cancer stem cells are still controversial, but with progress in studies like these, it's less about whether they exist and more about 'what does this mean?'" said Dr. Max Wicha, director of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, who is familiar with the...

A court decision on 23 July could help to tame the largely unregulated field of adult stem-cell treatments. The US District Court in Washington DC affirmed the right of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate therapies made from a patient’s own processed stem cells. The case hinged on whether the court agreed with the FDA that such stem cells are drugs. The judge concurred, upholding an injunction brought by the FDA against Regenerative Sciences, based in Broomfield, Colorado...

Enlarge Image Beyond in vitro? A new study suggests that ovarian stem cells may not replace traditional IVF techniques (shown). Credit: iStockphoto/Thinkstock A handful of "rainbow" mice have persuaded some researchers that biology textbooks don't need to be rewritten quite yet. A study of the animals—rodents genetically engineered to display a variety of colorful fluorescent markers in select cells—indicate that they don't have stem cells that continue making new egg cells after birth, a conclusion that supports a long-held but recently questioned tenet of mammalian reproductive biology. Yet those who have challenged that belief aren't backing down, claiming the...

A cutting-edge method developed at the University of Michigan Center for Arrhythmia Research successfully uses stem cells to create heart cells capable of mimicking the heart's crucial squeezing action. The cells displayed activity similar to most people's resting heart rate. At 60 beats per minute, the rhythmic electrical impulse transmission of the engineered cells in the U-M study is 10 times faster than in most other reported stem cell studies. An image of the electrically stimulated cardiac cells is displayed on the cover of the current issue of Circulation Research, a publication of the American Heart Association. For those suffering...

Enlarge Image Ring of protection. In experiments, myelin produced by injected human neural stem cells (green) formed protective sleeves around the nerve fibers in mouse brains (red). Credit: RIKEN CDB; StemCells Inc. YOKOHAMA, JAPAN—For more than a decade, stem cell therapies have been touted as offering hope for those suffering from genetic and degenerative diseases. The promise took another step toward reality last week with announcements here at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) that two groups are moving forward with human clinical research, one focusing on a rare genetic neurological disease and...

Enlarge Image Root killer. Cancer-like stem cells treated with the antipsychotic drug thioridazine (right) are scarce compared with control cells. Credit: E. Sachlos et al., Cell, 149 (8 June), ©2012 Elsevier Inc. A well-known drug for treating schizophrenia may be a cancer killer, too. In lab studies, the drug wiped out a precursor to leukemia cells without harming normal cells. That means it could give doctors a long-sought way to eliminate every trace of leukemia in patients so that the cancer can never come back. Even though surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation can get rid of a tumor or leukemia...

Cardiomyocytes, the workhorse cells that make up the beating heart, can now be made cheaply and abundantly in the laboratory. Writing this week (May 28, 2012) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of Wisconsin scientists describes a way to transform human stem cells -- both embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells -- into the critical heart muscle cells by simple manipulation of one key developmental pathway. The technique promises a uniform, inexpensive and far more efficient alternative to the complex bath of serum or growth factors now used to nudge blank slate stem cells to...

By the time Dr. Spencer Misner had carved away the dead and diseased flesh from Bobby Rice’s right foot last year, little remained other than bones and tendons. “I couldn’t believe it. It didn’t look real. It looked like something out of a movie,” recalled Rice, a Whitfield County resident. Today, the ankle has almost completely healed. It looks like Rice had simply scraped it. And Rice’s foot has largely healed, too. Misner credits cutting-edge stem cell treatments for saving Rice’s foot and leg.

Michael J. Fox, whose turn from Parkinson’s disease patient to scientific crusader made him one of the country’s most visible advocates for stem cell research, now believes the controversial therapy may not ultimately yield a cure for his disease, he told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview. There have been “problems along the way,” Fox said of stem cell studies, for which he has long advocated. Instead, he said, new drug therapies are showing real promise and are “closer today” to providing a cure for Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative illness that over time causes the body to become rigid...

Macrophages play a key role in the immune response, protecting organisms against infection and regulating the development of inflammation in tissue. Macrophages differ depending on where they are located and which tasks they perform. A scientist at TUM has been investigating whether these different types of cells have the same origin – and has come up with some surprising results. His findings reveal that there are two distinct macrophage cell lines that continue into adult life and that these two lineages have different origins. The research was recently published in Science magazine. The organs of vertebrates, including of course humans...

A blogger in North Carolina has been threatened with jail time for “practicing nutrition without a license” by writing about his experiences with diabetes and telling readers what types of food he was eating. It was in January when the North Carolina Board of Dietetics and Nutrition told blogger Steve Cooksey, who writes at diabetes-warrior.net, that it was investigating him for providing nutrition care services without a license. Cooksey was accused of violating Chapter 90, Article 25 of the North Carolina General Statutes, which makes it a misdemeanor to “practice dietetics or nutrition” without state permission – a license. According...

A team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the National Human Genome Research Institute has evaluated the whole genomic sequence of stem cells derived from human bone marrow cells -- so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells -- and found that relatively few genetic changes occur during stem cell conversion by an improved method. The findings, reported in the March issue of Cell Stem Cell, the official journal of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), will be presented at the annual ISSCR meeting in June. "Our results show that human iPS cells accrue genetic changes at about the...

Three separate studies in mice show normal function can be restored to hair, eye and heart cells. At the turn of the twentieth century... --snip-- Beating hearts But stem-cell transplants aren't always straightforward: if the cells fail to integrate into the desired tissue, they can form tumours instead. To avoid this problem, researchers have been trying to reprogram fully developed adult cells directly so that they form other cell types. Now, in a study published in Nature3, a team of researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), has managed to achieve just that using cardiac fibroblasts. Deepak Srivastava,...

Enlarge Image Governor Rick Perry Credit: Gage Skidmore Tomorrow the Texas Medical Board will decide whether to sign off on what's said to be the first state-level policy imposing oversight on the medical use of experimental treatments using adult stem cells. The hotly debated plan has drawn mixed views from the scientific community over whether it's a good way to raise standards—and has generated confusion in the media. Some experts say the rule will allow unscrupulous doctors to evade review by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because it may clear methods that haven't been rigorously examined. But others...

At The Vatican: Vying Factions For Petrus Romanus Highlighted, Unknown Reasons May Keep Benedict On Past April by Steve Eastman, Raiders News Network One thing we may be certain of is that Benedict XVI is the next to the last Pope in St. Malachy’s Prophecy of the Popes. And both those who speak openly of his successor as Petrus Romanus and those who don’t, can’t help thinking about the upcoming Conclave. No date has been announced since Benedict has neither died nor resigned, but that did not stop the "National Catholic Reporter" from featuring Papal Transition as a top story....

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital say they have extracted stem cells from human ovaries and made them generate egg cells. The advance, if confirmed, might provide a new source of eggs for treating infertility, though scientists say it is far too early to tell if the work holds such promise.

Generally speaking, the American public is well accustomed to the concept of tissue and organ transplantation, as stories of life-saving heart and kidney transplants, or American Red Cross blood drives collecting blood and platelets for transfusions have become commonplace. Since these procedures typically require a transfer of tissue from one patient to another, physicians must be careful to choose well-matched donors to avoid rejection by the recipient’s immune system. But what about other specialized tissues that can be affected by disease, such as those of the eye? A recent study published in the journal Stem Cells by Winston Kao and...

A treatment for eye diseases that is derived from human embryonic stem cells might have improved the vision of two patients, bolstering the beleaguered field, researchers reported Monday. Dr. Steven Schwartz, a retina specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles, conducted the trial with two patients. Sue Freeman said her vision improved in a meaningful way after the treatment, which used embryonic stem cells. The report, published online in the medical journal The Lancet, is the first to describe the effect on patients of a therapy involving human embryonic stem cells. The paper comes two months after the Geron...

When you hear the term “stem cells”, what comes to mind? Religious controversy? Ethical debate? embryonic stem cell research? These associations are common, and unfortunately could be limiting how often stem cells are donated for use as a life-saving transplant. Many people equate stem cells with embryonic stem cell research but non-embryonic (or adult) stem cells are different and they’re used every day in modern medicine to save lives. Furthermore, to date, embryonic stem cells have not been used for many human therapeutic purposes.Nearly everyone knows someone that has had or needed a bone marrow transplant, but did you know...

For the first time ever, stem cells from umbilical cords have been converted into other types of cells, which may eventually lead to new treatment options for spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis, among other nervous system diseases.  “This is the first time this has been done with non-embryonic stem cells,” says James Hickman, a University of Central Florida bioengineer and leader of the research group, whose accomplishment is described in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience.“We’re very excited about where this could lead because it overcomes many of the obstacles present with embryonic stem cells.” ...