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Xabier López Aranguren, a biologist and biochemist at the University of Navarra, has studied in his doctoral dissertation the use of adult stem cells in order to palliate damage to the tissues affected by cardiovascular diseases, which are one of the leading causes of death in the Western world. The results of his research have recently been published in the journal Blood. In these ailments, there is tissue death. The tissues cease to function because they do not receive sufficient oxygen or nutrients via the arteries. In his study he has identified “how adult stem cells can correct this damage,...

MINNEAPOLIS - Dr. Mindy Rauch thought she was humoring her brother at a family gathering last Father's Day when she agreed to examine his 6-month-old daughter, Hannah. The baby's stomach worried him: it felt taut, and too big. Dr. Rauch, a pediatrician, thought her brother was just another nervous first-time father. "Oh, look at this belly," she said playfully, feeling the baby's middle. A moment later she turned to her husband, who is also a pediatrician, and said, "You have to feel this." Hannah's liver and spleen were enormously enlarged. It was a sign of serious illness: possibly a tumor,...