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In the months after a roadside bomb in Afghanistan blew off part of his left thigh, Sgt. Ron Strang wondered if he would ever be able to walk normally again. The explosion and subsequent rounds of surgery left Sergeant Strang, 28, a Marine, with a huge divot in his upper thigh where the quadriceps muscle had been. He could move the leg backward, but with so much of the muscle gone he could not kick it forward. He could walk, but only awkwardly. “I got really good at falling,” he said of his efforts. And Sergeant Strang... --snip-- “I thought,...

Andemariam Beyene sat by the hospital window, the low Arctic sun on his face, and talked about the time he thought he would die. Two and a half years ago doctors in Iceland, where Mr. Beyene was studying to be an engineer, discovered a golf-ball-size tumor growing into his windpipe. Despite surgery and radiation, it kept growing. In the spring of 2011, when Mr. Beyene came to Sweden to see another doctor, he was practically out of options. “I was almost dead,” he said. “There was suffering. A lot of suffering.” But the doctor, Paolo Macchiarini, at the Karolinska Institute...

Two species of African spiny mouse have been caught at something no other mammal is known to do — completely regenerating damaged tissue1. The work could help improve wound healing in humans. The species — Acomys kempi and Acomys percivali — have skin that is brittle and easily torn, which helps them to escape predators by jettisoning patches of their skin when caught or bitten. Researchers report today in Nature that whereas normal laboratory mice (Mus musculus) grow scar tissue when their skin is removed, African spiny mice can regrow complete suites of hair follicles, skin, sweat glands, fur and...

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,...

California's $3 billion stem cell agency, now more than 7 years old, has joined research partnerships with science and health agencies in eight foreign countries, the San Francisco institute announced. The agreements call for collaboration in efforts aimed at speeding stem cell research from the laboratory to the hospital, where researchers hope that basic human cells will be programmed to treat scores of human degenerative diseases. Research partnerships between American and foreign stem cell scientists are encouraged, but the California institute's funds would only be spent within the state, institute officials said. Alan Trounson, president of the California Institute for...

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...

Surgeons in Sweden have replaced the cancerous windpipe of a Maryland man with one made in a laboratory and seeded with the man’s cells. The windpipe, or trachea, made from minuscule plastic fibers and covered in stem cells taken from the man’s bone marrow, was implanted in November. The patient, Christopher Lyles, 30, whose tracheal cancer had progressed to the point where it was considered inoperable, arrived home in Baltimore on Wednesday. It was the second procedure of its kind and the first for an American. “I’m feeling good,” Mr. Lyles said in a telephone interview from his home, where...

A new research breakthrough has enabled scientists to grow human tissue to repair or replace organs, and someday, maybe even limbs. Science correspondent Miles O'Brien reports.Be advised: Some of the images are graphic.MILES O'BRIEN: I am not sure when or why I thought it was a good idea to go for a bike ride on a 100-degree Texas afternoon with a 26-year-old Marine corporal. There I was eating Isaias Hernandez's dirt. No surprise, right? Well, take a look at his right thigh.CPL. ISAIAS HERNANDEZ, U.S. Marine Corps: It looked like a chicken, like if you would take a bite out...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – August 9, 2011 – Researchers have built the first functional anal sphincters in the laboratory, suggesting a potential future treatment for both fecal and urinary incontinence. Made from muscle and nerve cells, the sphincters developed a blood supply and maintained function when implanted in mice. The results are reported in the medical journal Gastroenterology. "In essence, we have built a replacement sphincter that we hope can one day benefit human patients. This is the first bioengineered sphincter made with both muscle and nerve cells, making it 'pre-wired' for placement in the body," said senior author Khalil N....

SEONGNAM, South Korea (Reuters) - More than five years after South Korea's scientific reputation was shattered by a cloning research scandal, the country has approved stem cell medication in the form of a treatment for heart attack victims for the world's first clinical use... --snip-- SHARES SOAR ON GROUND-BREAKING TREATMENT FCB-Pharmicell specializes in developing stem cell drugs for incurable diseases. Hearticellgram-AMI takes somatic stem cells extracted from the patient's own bone marrow that are then cultured and directly injected into the damaged heart. "Our first goal is to apply them in patients with illnesses that are not curable through conventional...

Scientists have raised hope that stem cell therapy could provide significant relief for patients disabled by untreatable chest pain.Patients with severe angina had stem cells from their blood injected into their heart.The therapy, carried out by Chicago's Northwestern University, halved the number of bouts of angina chest pain.But UK experts have stressed the work is still at an early stage, and the potential longer benefit is unknown.The procedure may also carry a risk: it is suspected of causing heart muscle damage in two patients, and others reported bone and chest pain.The study, reported in the journal Circulation Research, was carried...

Enlarge Image Self-healing? After a heart attack like this patient has suffered, cells in the heart might be able to make new muscle, a mouse study suggests. Credit: Fotosearch Heart attacks kill because they strangle heart muscle, destroying cells and preventing the organ from pumping properly. Now, researchers reveal that they have nudged cells within mouse hearts to repair some of the damage, a discovery that might prompt new treatments for heart attacks in humans. Researchers are probing several ways to encourage the heart to fix itself. Last year, for instance, cardiac stem cell biologist Deepak Srivastava of the...

A team of researchers at Lund University in southern Sweden have managed to develop nerve cells from human skin cells without using stem cells - a development described as an ethical and medical breakthrough. "This fundamentally changes how we look at mature cells and their capacity. Previously a skin cell was thought to always remain a skin cell, but we have shown that it can be any cell," said Malin Parmar, the Lund University researcher leading the study, to The Local on Tuesday. The new technique works by reprogramming connective tissue cells, so-called human fibroblasts, directly into nerve cells, opening...

Enlarge Image Golden years. Mice without active telomerase (right) look much older than those with the enzyme (left). Credit: Mariela Jaskelioff/Harvard Medical School In F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," an old man gets younger with each passing day, a fantastic concept recently brought to life on film by Brad Pitt. In a lab in Boston, a research team has used genetic engineering to accomplish something similarly curious, turning frail-looking mice into younger versions of themselves by stimulating the regeneration of certain tissues. The study helps explain why certain organs and tissues break down...

Enlarge Image Clear-eyed. A biosynthetic cornea, shown here 1 day after implantation (left, lines are sutures) and 2 years later, allowed nerves in the eye to regenerate over time and left the eye looking normal. Credit: Per Fagerholm and Neil Lagali At least 8 million people worldwide could see again with new corneas, the thin, clear layer of collagen and cells at the front of the eye that helps it focus. But most never get transplants. A few years ago researchers developed biosynthetic corneas and now, 2 years after implanting them into patients, they appear safe and have helped...

Researchers from UCI, UCSD and Harvard deleted a cell growth inhibitor called PTENIrvine, Calif. — Researchers for the first time have induced robust regeneration of nerve connections that control voluntary movement after spinal cord injury, showing the potential for new therapeutic approaches to paralysis and other motor function impairments. In a study on rodents, the UC Irvine, UC San Diego and Harvard University team achieved this breakthrough by turning back the developmental clock in a molecular pathway critical for the growth of corticospinal tract nerve connections. They did this by deleting an enzyme called PTEN (a phosphatase and tensin homolog),...

Two research reports published Friday offer novel approaches to the age-old dream of regenerating the body from its own cells. Animals like newts and zebra fish can regenerate limbs, fins, even part of the heart. If only people could do the same, amputees might grow new limbs and stricken hearts be coaxed to repair themselves. But humans have very little regenerative capacity, probably because of an evolutionary trade-off: suppressing cell growth reduced the risk of cancer, enabling humans to live longer. A person can renew his liver to some extent, and regrow a fingertip while very young, but not much...

Enlarge Image Cellular alchemy. A cocktail of three genes can turn common structural cells in the heart into beating muscle cells. Credit: M. Ieda et al., Cell,142 (6 August 2010) ©Elsevier Inc. Cell biologists often seem like modern-day alchemists. Instead of turning lead or straw into gold, they're looking for ways to turn one kind of cell into another, potentially more useful, cell. Now, one research team has found a way to turn a very common heart cell into a cell missing in injured hearts. A healthy heart is a mix of several kinds of cells, including cardiomyocytes, the muscle...

Could this new gel be the biggest dental breakthrough since the introduction of fluoride? THE GIST A new gel could soon eliminate painful fillings and root canals. The technology doesn't prevent cavities; it heals teeth by regenerating them. Although this is good news for teeth, the research could also be applied to heal bones and other tissues in the body. Dentists could soon hang up their drills. A new peptide, embedded in a soft gel or a thin, flexible film and placed next to a cavity, encourages cells inside teeth to regenerate in about a month, according to a new...

Scientists in Canada and the US have developed artificial proteins that mimic the elastic and mechanical properties of the muscle protein, titin. When cross-linked into biomaterials, these proteins are tough and stretchy just like muscle tissue, the researchers say.There has been intense research to develop synthetic elastomers that mimic muscle tissue for use in biomedical applications. However there are limitations in using these materials for implants as they cannot help with tissue repair or regeneration, and the artificial material can often be attacked by the immune system and rejected by the host's body. The development of artificial muscle tissue using proteins could...